Healthy New York Health Insurance Plan
Reader’s Question:
I’m looking to purchase a health insurance policy here in New York in the near future. What do I need to know about health insurance?
Milton
NYC
Milton, to give you an overview of what health insurance, it is mainly just another type of insurance covering hospital or medical expenses. Say, you were diagnosed with something life-threatening, like a stroke. A bypass operation was found out to be needed. It is unfortunate that after the surgery, therapy and other expenses will still hound you. It is really financially backbreaking to undergo a medical procedure such as a bypass operation without sufficient health care plans. Paying for a medical operation such as that will literally wipe out your fortune in a few months’ time.
You have to remember that this type of insurance product has a high decline rate. According to a study, around thirteen percent of applicants were denied to get a comprehensive medical health insurance in 2004. What does this mean? It means that while you are young, healthy and capable of paying for a health insurance, then you should do so. Who knows, a year or 5 years from now, you may be one of those guys included in the thirteen percent tally of declined applicants deemed as very risky. Not only that, but having a health care plan actually would make you a healthier person as you will be more inclined to go for check-ups.
Milton, if I may add also, non-smokers are given the privilege of having smaller premiums. To ask for quotations, please contact your health insurance agent in New York.
Cheap Business Group Health Insurance
If it weren’t for getting health insurance through your employer, more Americans would be uninsured than there already are. Its greatness, however, does not in any way make it any funner to sift through all of the different plans offered by your company to try to figure out which one best fits the needs of your family. Such tedious work is necessary, but for someone who already has a full time job, it can be a serious violation of the little free time that you have. Even so, if you want to do what’s right for you, research and time are basic necessities.
If you get group health insurance with your employer, usually you’ll get an option of what kind of plan you want, and the type you choose will determine both how much freedom you have in determining your health care path, and how much you will be paying for your monthly premium. Figuring out whether you should opt for more expense with freedom or cheaper premiums with lots of restrictions is difficult, so here’s some points to follow.
-
Network. Deciding between a plan where you are required to stick to a network of physicians or going with a different plan can often be determined just by seeing what the selection offered by the plan’s network is. Research into a few of the doctors and make sure they give quality care, ask other patients about them, and so on. You may have a family doctor that you’re attached to and should choose a more flexible plan if you want to keep going to that doctor.
-
Travel. Are the doctors in the network within good distance of your home and office? Do you have options if you have an emergency and have to go to the nearest place? What happens if you get sick or injured while you are traveling?
-
Price. Lucky for you, as someone who has group health insurance through their employer, your boss will be picking up part of the tab. Still, you should find out the details about what exactly your company will pay and what will be left over to you, as well as asking questions about co pays and prescriptions and the like.
-
Freedom. Do like to pick your doctor or save your money? Usually, employer sponsored health insurance will require you to stay within a network, but often there are more expensive options for going out of the network.
-
Think ahead. You may be a healthy bachelor right now with a health care plan that fits you, but what about down the line? If you get married and start a family, will your insurance cover your spouse and children? Pregnancy? Retirement? What about huge things such as surgery or treatments if something happens in the future that you can’t foresee? If such things are covered, are they covered immediately, or do you have to wait until the end of the year for your company’s enrollment?
-
Coverage. Does your health plan cover preventive care? What about physicals and dental appointments? Prescriptions? Ambulance and ER visits?
-
Extras. These are the things that not all health care plans provide for, but you might need in the future. Lots of plans don’t cover mental health care, but do you need it? What about family planning, such as abortion or infertility treatments? Chiropractics?
-
Pre existing conditions. This might be one of the biggest things that you need to worry about if you have one and need to get good health care coverage.
-
Coverage caps. Health insurance plans do not provide you with infinite coverage. Often, they’ll set a certain amount that they can pay out through your plan over a year or a lifetime. You should make sure that this is a decent amount so that, even if you end up with some huge medical bills, you will come out okay. Many employers will offer health savings account to help their employees avoid problems with these caps.
-
Claims and complaints. One of the most important things to getting a good experience out of your health insurance plan is being able to have a voice in your coverage. You should be able to complain and be listened to. You should be able to fight against claims being rejected or being reimbursed for too little.
Cheers,
Fashun Guadarrama.
Premium payments for KCHIP Lexington health insurance
If you are unable to pay your premium for KCHIP, then you will have to go to the nearest Lexington health insurance office and try again, which will start the process all over, with another application, interview, and everything. You can still get approved after defaulting on a premium, but since it is such a hassle and having health insurance coverage is so important, it should be avoided at all costs. To make sure you pay on time, remember that premiums are do on the 5th every month.
Even if you do take a while to make a premium payment, but still pay it on or before the due date for the first payment, your child will still be covered during that time although you may have to be reimbursed and make the payment for their treatment initially. If your child gets approved, then his or her coverage begins that same day that you applied at the office, even if you weren’t approved yet. So if you had to take your kid to the doctor or hospital while waiting for approval, that is covered, too.
If you are sending the payment through mail, then you need to take precaution to send it at least a week ahead of time, so that the office has plenty of time to receive and process the payment before the due date. If you mail it on the due date, then your child will likely lose his or her coverage. The amount isn’t too much–every family pays twenty dollars a month, whether they have two kids or eight. If you don’t pay your premium, then you will have to pay twenty dollars more in order to apply again for coverage for your child.
Cheers,
Fashun Guadarrama.
Two tiered Columbia health insurance plan
Reader question:
What types of health care plans are offered at Columbia University?
Randall
Great question.
There are two types of health insurance plans that you can get if you are a registered full time student at Columbia University, either as a grad student or an undergrad. One of them is the basic level, and the other the comprehensive, and you have the option to get both. Every student who registers full time at Columbia is automatically enrolled into the Columbia health insurance program, so it is likely that if you attend Columbia you will be choosing between one of these health insurance coverage plans.
The basic level plan is the one at which everybody starts. You are automatically put into this plan, although you may get a waiver or even get the comprehensive plan instead. This is the average plan that works for most students and is made for the people with less risk. If you don’t plan on using a more than average amount of health service, and you want a cheap plan, then the basic level may be for you. The basic level comes with $300,000 of coverage and might be a good option for students who can’t afford to pay high monthly premiums, as it puts more of the burden on co pays than on premiums.
The comprehensive plan is the next level up, and it comes with a million dollars worth of maximum coverage over the course of the insured person’s life. It comes with everything that the basic level does, with a little extra. It helps for people who need more extensive mental care by providing them with off campus mental evaluation and treatment, and it also comes with greater provisions for things like prescriptions and recovery treatments. This is the best option for students with a pre existing condition, although it can be expensive because the monthly premium costs more, but copayments and deductibles are smaller.
Cheers,
Fashun Guadarrama.
What is traditional medical health insurance?
If you want to get traditional indemnity medical health insurance, also called FFS or fee for service medical health insurance, then you’re going to have to like paperwork. That’s why I’m including this video of a cute baby kitty in this post. Because, naturally, thinking of adorable kittens makes any distasteful action funner. Well, that might be overselling it a little bit.
Regardless of the extra amount of paperwork required, fee for service medical health insurance isn’t all that bad. It does cost more, with both more pricey monthly premiums as well as deductibles that tend to be on the high end, but at the same time it is a lot more flexible than many kinds of medical health insurance plans. If you’re willing to pay a little extra money and spend a little extra time for a lot more freedom and choice, then traditional indemnity medical health insurance might be the best option for you.
The Good:
- Lots of flexibility, in that you can pick what doctor, specialist, or hospital you patronize instead of having to choose out of a network and having to get a referral to go outside that network. It helps you take control of your medical experience and handle the way your health is going more than other, more controlling plans.
- No referrals, again. If you have to go to a specialist, you don’t have to worry about getting denied by the primary care giver that your insurance company picked for you. You can choose on your own.
The Bad:
- If you want the medical health insurance company to pay for the health insurance claim, you have to pay the deductible first, and this often is high. Also, after you have paid the deductible, you usually have to co-pay. Although the insurance company tends to pay around eighty percent, you still have to pay the other twenty.
- Your medical health insurance doesn’t cover your needs right away. Rather, you have to pay first and then file a health insurance claim to get your money (most of it) back to you.
- Traditional indemnity medical health insurance decides what is the normal price for a medical service, so if you go to a physician that is more expensive than others around the same area, then you’ll have to pay that extra money because the insurance won’t cover it.
Cheers,
Fashun Guadarrama.