Reader question:
How much does individual medical health insurance tend to cost, and what affects those rates?
Mandy
Good question.
There are many states who mandate that individual health insurance companies insure anybody who wants to be insured and can pay, but this isn’t true everywhere, and there also isn’t a set amount of what you will be paying. Most of the time, it will be a lot. Individual medical health insurance is very pricey, and it all depends on who you are, what your history is, and where you are at. Group plans are a lot cheaper because the number of people dilutes the risks of others in the group and it ends up averaging out, whereas for individual health insurance it’s always concentrated in one person.
An individual medical health insurance plan is usually underwritten so the health insurance company can judge your rates based on your medical history. There are a lot of things that can affect your rates in the end, even things that you wouldn’t think would affect it, such as having been pregnant at some point. Those things can be the difference between high prices and middling ones, being insured and being uninsured.
Individual medical health insurance coverage comes with much the same coverage as group medical health insurance coverage, except for the requirement of individual coverage that it be underwritten. Here are some factors considered by the underwriter:
- Age. If you’re over the age of sixty five, you might be out of luck when it comes to getting medical health insurance. Age is a big factor in who is or is nor eligible for medical health insurance.
- Sex. Benefits of your gender depend on how old you are. When people are longer, females tend to get injured more often and file more health insurance claims than males. Once they turn sixty, it’s vice verce.
- Health History and Physical Condition. Things like pre-existing conditions can make it hard to get decent medical health insuranc coverage. You might luck out and be able to get a different, more limited kind of coverage, but it’s often the case that you will be denied coverage completely.
- Job and Hobbies. What you do in your work and spare time may be more dangerous than what other people do and could result in higher rates or denial of coverage. If you like sky diving or work in construction, you might have trouble getting decent medical health insurance rates.
Cheers,
Fashun Guadarrama.