A lot of people balk at the idea of sharing their personal information with an insurance company. They feel that it is an invasion of privacy and often get quite prickly about this issue.

We often feel that we have a right to insurance, especially medical insurance. Perhaps our government should provide medical or personal care insurance programs for its citizenry. There are pro and cons on universal healthcare but maybe we should all be covered. The debate on Obama’s health care program goes on as we question how much will universal healthcare cost the US.

However, even if the government should cover us, a private insurer has no such obligation. They are in business to make money and expecting them to lose money by insuring people who had serious medical problems BEFORE they purchased insurance from them is like asking a race track to allow people to place bets after the race has been won or expecting a grocery store to give away free food to the poor.

If you are looking for a loan, you will have to share personal information with the bank. If you are looking for home owners insurance in California, want personal medical health insurance in Arizona or are interested in private health insurance plans in New York, you will have to provide the information they ask for to get coverage.

Getting insurance without sharing personal information may be something that is in our future. However at this time we cannot expect an insurance company to insure everyone regardless of medical history. They will go out of business if they did that. We don’t expect Donald Trump to allow the homeless to rent his buildings without a background check. Private businesses should be fair and ethical, but it is the job of the people to cover those in need.

In many cases other types of insurance, such as car insurance, homeowners insurance or some other type of coverage will pay for your injuries. However, in many situations this will not be the case.

A car insurance policy is primarily a liability insurance policy. This means that it will pay money to others in certain situations. For example, if you ran into a man and broke his leg, your car insurance policy would probably pay to have the leg set.

However since you could not be liable to or successfully sue yourself, the liability part of your car insurance policy would not pay for injuries that you sustained.

You might get some medical bills taken care of if your policy has a “no fault” provision. However, the payout on this aspect of coverage is usually limited to a few thousand dollars. This would hardly be enough to put you back together if you have a major auto accident.

If however, you were injured in an accident where the other party was at fault, you may get your medical bills paid for by their automobile insurance policy. If they don’t have insurance you may have your bills paid by the uninsured motorist or underinsured motorist section of your policy.

Homeowners insurance can also pay for medical injuries, but you will find limitations here as well. You may find that liability coverage will pay for your medical bills, but only for injuries sustained in someone else’s house in situations where the homeowner was at fault.

If you are hurt on the job, you may find that your employer’s insurance will pay for your injuries. However, the fact that you need to be working for your employer’s insurance policy to cover anything limits the situations where you can expect to have your medical bills covered.

Only a relative few sicknesses, such as black lung for coal miners, are covered by an employer’s liability policy. This is because there has to be a reasonable belief that the sickness was caused by something directly connected to the job.

You may not need health insurance if…

• Your future medical bills will be the result of an automobile insurance accident where the other driver was at fault.
• Your future medical bills are small and covered by the “no fault” provision of your car insurance policy.
• Your future medical bills are the result of someone else’s negligence and are covered by their home owners insurance policy.
• Your future medical bills are the result of a on the job injury or a sickness that is likely to have been triggered by something connected to your job.

If you are tempted to go without health insurance, consider a cheap “house keeper” policy. That is what I call a cheap health insurance policy that has a high deductible. A policy like this might have a deductible of $5,000 or $10,000. This is a lot to pay off, but you will probably be able to make payments on the uncovered expenses and keep your house.

Do you really need health insurance? If your future medical bills are the result of a sickness or disease, chances are only a health insurance policy will cover them. If your injuries are not the fault of another driver or covered by another person’s homeowner’s insurance chances are, only a health insurance policy will cover the medical bills associated with your injuries.

Taking your COBRA health insurance option can be a mistake!

Many people are laboring under a very popular misconception. They often believe that the COBRA health insurance plan offered by their former employer is better than any private medical insurance policy that they might get on their own.

Because of this belief they fail to investigate their options with individual or family health insurance policies that they can purchase on their own. Many would be surprised to learn that companies like Aetna, Blue Cross Blue Shield and United Healthcare that offer group health insurance to large and small employers also offer policies that can be purchased by individuals who are not part of a group.

These policies may not be identical to the policies that they offer to their group insurance clients. However, they often tap into the same network of doctors and hospitals. They often have very similar benefits.

COBRA Insurance plans are often more expensive than private plans!

COBRA health insurance can cost more than private health insurance. This again often comes as a surprise to the average consumer who has never shopped for health insurance on their own.

COBRA gives you the right to participate in the group health insurance plan that your former employer offers to its current employees. This makes COBRA a group health insurance policy. Group health insurance policies, and therefore COBRA health insurance policies, often cost more than individual policies.

We are used to things bought in larger quantities costing less. A gallon of spring water costs less when purchased in gallon container than when purchased in several smaller ones. A group that purchases a block of tickets to an event can expect to pay less per ticket than an individual would pay when purchasing a single ticket.

Health insurance doesn’t always follow this pattern. In many states a group health insurance policy has to be offered to all employees regardless of their health status. This means that the insurance company can have higher costs associated with those policies. They of course pass those costs along to the consumer.

Although an insurance company cannot drop a policy holder just because their health has worsened AFTER they purchased, they are usually able to be selective about new applicants. They will deny those who have current health problems. This lowers their cost and the cost if private health insurance.

Accepting COBRA can prevent you from qualifying for health insurance in the future!

COBRA is short-term health insurance

The answer to the question “how long can I carry cobra insurance after my job loss?” is usually 18 months although it can be longer in certain circumstances. This usually means that if you take your COBRA health insurance option you will need to find another health insurance policy or be without coverage 18 months from when your COBRA began.

Should you or one of your insured family members develop a significant medical condition during that time period, you or that family member may not qualify for an underwritten medical policy when your COBRA eligibility ends.

This can mean that taking COBRA prevents you from buying another health insurance policy!

There are situations were taking COBRA is your best options. However, if you are healthy and your family is healthy, you will probably get a lower price by shopping around and finding a good health insurance policy that you can purchase directly from a quality health insurance provider.

Many people want to know what is the average price of medical insurance in a given area. This information is probably not very useful since age and medical history have such a big influence on health insurance pricing. If you to want know what health insurance will cost YOU and what is best health insurance for YOUR family, that information is readily available. You can request health insurance quotes and get an answer instantly in some areas and very quickly in others.

Average Health Insurance Prices Go Up In Hard Times

The average cost for health insurance is rising very rapidly. Unfortunately, it can rise even faster during a recession. This is because a higher percentage of medical bills go unpaid than they would in better times. Hospitals and doctors continue to treat many of these people due to the Hippocratic Oath, their own sense of what is right and not incidentally certain government mandates. They then have to pass these unpaid costs on to their paying customers. This means the insured patients pay more for their medical insurance coverage.

This May Be Unfair to the Insured

Yes, this may be unfair but this is the way it is at this time and unless the answer to the question "what is the future of individual health insurance?" is much different than what I predict, this will continue for a long time. Health insurance prices go up because we get older. They go up when new procedures are approved. Medical insurance prices go up when new laws are passed that mandate more coverage.

How to Lower Your Medical Insurance Costs

The average cost of medical insurance may be going up and there may be little you can do about it. However, your personal costs don’t have to rise as quickly as everyone else’s.

Here are a few suggestions that have helped a lot of our clients lower their medical expenses:

• Eliminate unneeded medical coverage
• Consider eliminating dental insurance
• Consider High Deductible Health Plans
• Get Healthier
• Shop Around

Eliminate Unneeded Medical Coverage

Often we find that families are paying too much for their coverage because they are paying for coverages that they no longer need or that they never needed. Maternity insurance is probably the most costly coverage that people carry after they no longer need it. It pays to review your coverage and make sure that you still need all the optional coverages.

Consider Eliminating Dental Insurance

Dental insurance, especially when you purchase it directly is often more expensive than it is worth. There are often waiting periods and annual caps and other limitations that make this coverage a bad buy. Take a good look at your dental insurance policy and see if you think it is worth your hard earned money.

Consider High Deductible Health Plans

Raising your deductible does mean that you are increasing your exposure. However, in many cases you increase your exposure by a smaller amount than the decrease in premium. You’ll have to do a little math to see if it is worthwhile to raise your deductible, but for many people it is. In Connecticut we find that purchasing an HSA compatible plan from Blue Cross Blue Shield with High Deductible is often much better and less expensive than a low deductible co-pay plan even if a client has a lot of medical expenses.

The true cost of your health insurance policy is not just the amount of the premiums, but the cost of your deductible and other cost shares. We find in many cases, that even when you add in those additional costs, the total for a high deductible plan is less than the cost of other policies.

You should ask yourself will be the cost of this policy plus the cost of unreimbursed expenses if I have

1. No expenses or just preventative care medical expenses
2. Moderate medical expenses
3. Catastrophic expenses

You may be very surprised when you do the math. What is the meaning of insurance premium or the value of comparing insurance premiums without also looking at the potential of unreimbursed costs?

You will probably find that medical insurance plans with moderate to high deductibles will suit your family better than low deductible plans.

Get Healthier

You may be charged more for health insurance because of your weight or the fact that you smoke. If either of the above is true, you may find that lowering your weight or lowering your cancer risk will lower your premiums. I know that this is much easier to type than to do, but please consider it. There is more at stake than lower medical insurance costs.

Shop Around

Medical insurance costs can vary quite a lot from carrier to carrier. Shop around, but make sure that you only purchase quality coverage from reputable companies.

You may find that by selecting the right plan and the right options YOUR average monthly cost for health insurance goes down substantially.

Medical insurance changes constantly.  The more knowledge you have about private health insurance the more likely you are to find the plan that offers the best value for you and your family.  If you are surprised by the five things listed below, you may want to find a reputable insurance broker who can help you select your policy.

Your zip code matters.

Your location can have a big impact on your premiums.  People will tend to visit doctors and hospitals close to their homes.  Since doctors in different locations can charge differently, your location can impact the cost of your health care.

The cost your insurance company has to pay is passed on to you the consumers.  If doctors charge more in your area, your insurance premiums will probably be higher as well.

Your family may pay less if you purchase separate health insurance policies.

This is not true with most companies or with most families.  However, many insurance companies use rating systems that are biased towards certain types of families.

An insurance policy that covers one parent and a child may be more expensive than two separate policies that cover the same two people.  A policy that covers parents in their fifties and a child or children may also cost more.  Policies that cover maternity may be loaded up with extra benefits that you find unnecessary.  The family members that don’t need maternity insurance will often do better by purchasing separate policies.

Group Insurance is usually more expensive than individual insurance plans.

Most people are used to a world where buying in bulk means that you getting things more cheaply.  A gallon of water costs less per ounce than purchasing separate small bottles of water that add up to a gallon.

This isn’t usually true for health insurance.  Group health insurance policies usually are forced by law to accept les healthy people.  This drives the cost of the policies higher.  Since individual health insurance policies are usually underwritten, they can charge less because the policy holders are usually healthier.

COBRA is usually more expensive than individual health insurance plans.

COBRA is simply a group insurance plan.  COBRA is often twice as expensive as a similar individual or family health insurance plan.  It usually costs the consumer more than the same group insurance plan did when they were employed by their former company.  This is because COBRA is rarely subsidized by the former employer.

Insurance companies treat pre-existing conditions differently.

Being denied by one health insurance company for a pre-existing medical condition doesn’t not mean that one will be denied by all carriers.  Conditions like high blood pressure or depression can result in different underwriting decisions by different carriers.  One company might deny coverage.  A second company might accept an applicant but raise his or her rate.  A third company might accept the applicant, but eliminate outpatient coverage for the condition.  A fourth company may approve a policy with no rate increase.

An experienced insurance agent can help you apply with the right company.  Be sure to consult an agent before applying if you have any questions about your medical history. An agent can save you a lot of time and money by directing you towards the right plans.

Do your research or work with a good health insurance broker.  What you don’t know can hurt you or cost you more money.  Do your homework before you apply for coverage.

Don’t be one of those parents who loses tens of thousands of dollars because think that their child’s student health insurance provides quality coverage.  Many student health insurance policies have severe limitations that can leave your child unprotected.

Student health insurance policies often have coverage limits that are much lower than other forms of health insurance.  A limit of one hundred thousand dollars or even one million dollars is low by today’s standards.  Quality policies will cover 3 million or more.  Some plans have no lifetime limits.

Private medical insurance policies from companies like Blue Cross Blue Shield and Humana often offer much better coverage than the plans targeted at students.

You have to ask yourself why one health insurance plan costs dramatically less than another.  Usually where there is a big difference in price, there is also a big difference in quality.

Student Insurance and Pre existing Conditions

If your child is insured by a typical student insurance policy at the time he or she develops a major sickness or has a big accident the coverage may end before the bills do.  Student insurance policies will typically have an age limit.  Should your child develop a condition while covered by one of these policies, he or she may be dropped by the plan due to age.  The preexisting condition might cause him or her to then be denied coverage by other insurance carriers.  Many private health insurance plans can be kept until the insured party is 65 and eligible for Medicare.

If you find that the student health insurance plans you are looking at have severe limitations, you may want to investigate private medical insurance plans that are not specifically targeted at students.

Buying Private Medical Insurance for Your Student

Finding the right health insurance for a student involves the same basic process that you would follow to find the right health insurance plan for an adult.  You will need to review the different options available for you and seek to find the best combination of benefits and favorable pricing.  Using a good health insurance broker who represents several carriers may make this process easier.

There are two issues to be concerned with if your child lives away from home.  You may have more health insurance plans to choose from.  You may need to approach the insurance plan’s network differently.

You may have more plans to choose from if your child lives out of state.  You will probably have the option of purchasing a health insurance plan that is approved for your state or one as one that is approved for your child’s state.  This can result in your paying a lower price for coverage.

If your student doesn’t live at home, you will also need to make sure that the healthcare plan you select gives your child access to good hospitals and doctors both near your home and near his or her school.  This may limit your choices.

Be sure that any health insurance plan you purchase for your family will cover you well.  Student health insurance plans should not be an exception to this guideline.  The plan offered through your child’s school may have limitations that can hamper your child’s health and your finances.  Do your homework!

The belief that uninsured people already get free medical care is one of the arguments when people discuss the cons of universal healthcare in America.  I find it specious for two reasons.  The first reason is that if this is true, we are already paying for that medical care.  The second reason this is specious is that the care may cost more under this system because emergency care is better covered than preventative care.

If a doctor or hospital gives care to someone who doesn’t have private medical insurance and can’t pay their bill, the provider will be forced to add a little bit to the bills of their paying patients.  You and I are paying for that care in extra premiums to our health insurance companies and/or in extra dollars that we pay to our healthcare providers.  Shifting these costs to our taxes may not mean that we necessarily pay more; we may just pay differently.  This could mean that although it is probably not true that universal healthcare will not create higher taxes it may be true that it won’t cost us more overall.

There is no way around this.  This is true for supermarkets as it regards shoplifting.  This is true with companies in all industries that have outstanding accounts receivable. So this fact of business life isn’t  just for Californians without health insurance or Arkansas who don’t have Arkansas group insurance the costs of those who don’t pay is always transferred to those who do pay.  Does it matter that we currently pay this extra money in insurance premiums as opposed to extra tax dollars?

Free expensive emergency health care – limited cheap preventative care

The current system is biased towards providing emergency care for the uninsured and against providing cheaper preventative care.

Hospitals that want to get Medicare dollars are mandated to accept people in emergency situations whether or not they can pay for their care.  They don’t have to accept people who have chronic conditions that are all but destined to get worse.

This means that they don’t have to accept the person with high blood pressure and help him prevent a costly heart attack. This heart attack may keep that person from being a productive member of our society.  However they do have to help him when his wife drives him to the hospital after his heart attack.  Which do you think costs you and me more?

Another issue regarding this so called free care in the hospital is that the patient will be billed.  Their wages my be garnished and their credit may be ruinde. The uninsured patient may own a house and have that house taken away from him.  This may cause major disruptions in that person’s life and the life of his or her family.  It may cost the community as well.  The loss of credit and/or assets may mean that a child doesn’t complete their education and isn’t able to be as productive a citizen or pay as much money in taxes as he or she would otherwise.

I’m one of few health insurance agents who likes the concept of universal healthcare.  However, as with almost everything, there are more ways to do it wrong than to do it right.  I do have strong concerns about how we might implement universal healthcare, but we may be a better country after we have a better healthcare system in place.

The procedure for cancelling a medical insurance policy generally amounts to submitting a signed request with your policy number the date you want your policy cancelled and your name and address on it. However, you may need to cancel your policy by a certain date or with certain documentation in order to get a refund.

Most medical insurance companies will allow you to use a modified version of this health insurance sample cancellation letter.

The most important thing about cancelling an insurance policy is to make sure that you have another policy in place, or no longer have the need for the policy on the date of your insurance cancellation. You can accomplish this by applying for your new policy ahead of time. For example if you are looking to change from one MO medical insurance company to another, your Missouri individual health insurance application might request an effective date of June 1, 2009, but be submitted to the company on April 10, 2009. This should give the new insurance company enough time to make a decision about insuring you. You might get your approval notice sometime in late April and then you can notify your old insurance company that you no longer want them to cover you after the end of March.

Most if not all insurance companies will allow you to cancel your policy by fax. All will allow you to cancel by mail and a few will allow you to cancel by phone. Your company may have a form that you can use, but they should accept a handwritten or typed request. To find the fax number and the exact procedure recommended by your company, you should call their customer service number. However most companies will accept a modified version of the insurance cancellation letter samples you will find below.

An insurance policy cancellation letter should contain the following elements.

• Your policy number
• Your name
• Your address
• The date you want your coverage to end
• Your phone number
• Your signature
• A request to cancel your policy

You may also need proof of coverage with another carrier if your requested cancellation date is in the past or is in the middle of a month.

Health Insurance Sample Cancellation Letter

Name:

Address:

City, State, zip:

Date:

Aetna Inc.

151 Farmington Avenue

Hartford, CT 06156

USA

To Whom It May Concern:

This regards policy number: [enter policy number].

Please cancel my policy as of: [enter date].

If you need additional information, please contact me or my broker.

My broker is [enter broker's name]. My broker’s phone is: [enter phone number of broker].

My phone number is:

[enter phone number]

Sincerely,

Signature: [sign]

When cancelling a policy that hasn’t been approved yet, you are technically withdrawing your application and not cancelling your policy. When withdrawing your application, you should expect to get any money you have paid refunded to you. Insurance companies will not typically be able to give you an instant refund. You may not get your refund until several weeks or a month has passed.

Application withdrawal letter

Cancellation letter for insurance when the policy number hasn’t been issued yet

Name: [enter name]

Address: [enter address]

City, State, zip: [enter city state and zip]

Date: [enter date]

Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield

P. O. Box 1014

North Haven, CT 06473

To Whom It May Concern:

This regards the Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield policy I applied for on or about

[enter date] The application was for a policy to cover

[enter name]

Relationship [circle one] Self My Child

Please withdraw the application.

If you need additional information, please contact me or my broker.

My broker is [enter broker name] My broker’s phone number is : [enter phone number]

Sincerely,

Signature: [sign]

Putting yourself at undue risk while trying to reduce your health insurance, auto insurance, life insurance, maternity insurance or other insurance costs can really hurt your family in the long run.  There are wrong and costly ways to reduce your insurance costs.  There are also a right ways.

Dropping Your Insurance Coverage

If you can reduce the coverage instead of eliminating it, you will continue to provide your family with protection.

You can raise your deductible on your health, home owners or auto insurance.  You can increase the waiting period on your disability insurance or reduce the face amount on your life insurance.  In some instances you can make these changes without getting a new policy, in others, you will need to change to another policy.

One word or caution regarding reducing your coverage:  If your health status has changed for the worse since you purchased the original policy, you may wind up paying more for a policy with less coverage.  In this situation, you may not be able to lower your costs without eliminating the coverage all together.

Shopping Around With the Wrong Insurance Companies

Not all insurance companies are created equal.  In fact, some companies that offer products that compete with insurance companies aren’t insurance companies at all.

Be sure to check with the insurance department of your state to see if any company you are considering has is in good standing and has a reasonable amount of complaints against them.  No large insurance company that is without any complaints.  However, the number of complaints should be consistent and reasonable when compared to the size of the company and the number of people it serves.

Failing to Shop Around for Coverage

Many Insurance policies will change their rates on an annual basis.  This means that the company that offered you the best price last year may not be the company to be with this year.  Look at competing companies prices at least once every two years.  You may save a bundle without reducing the level of protection you provide your family.

Private medical insurance can be daunting for those who have always been insured by their employer’s group plan. I’ve specialized in helping my clients find good healthcare insurance for well over ten years now and have been a Connecticut insurance agent since 1985. I’d like to share with you the process I use when helping my clients find the best health insurance plan to cover themselves and their families.

The three things we look at are price, coverage and company.

• Company – Your health insurance company should be stable financially and have a good record for paying claims.
• Coverage – The medical coverage must meet your needs. It should cover doctors, hospitals, labs and prescriptions. It should also have doctors and hospitals in their networks that are convenient to you.
• Price – Your healthcare plan must be priced fairly relative to the benefits provided.

The basic process we use is to:

1. Determine which private medical companies are worthy of being considered.
2. Determine which plans offered by those healthcare carriers offer adequate coverages
3. Determine which plans are priced best relative to the health insurance benefits provided

Health Insurance Companies

Private medical insurance companies should have good AM Best ratings and be in good standing with your state’s insurance department. You may also want to do a Google or Yahoo! search for complaints.

For example you might search for "Mega Life and Health complaints" before completing an application with them. Every insurance company has some complaints. Just by virtue of the volume of clients they have. However, a red flag should go up in your mind if the complaints are too numerous.

Another thing to look at is how much they pay in benefits as a percentage of the premium they take in. A good company will spend about 80% of the money they take in to pay for their clients’ medical claims.

Coverage – What does your health insurance plan cover?

There are two aspects of coverage. One is the procedures that are covered. The second is the network’s list of doctors that the insurance plan includes.

Covered Medical Procedures

Your health care policy should cover you in both the doctor’s office and the hospital and should have a good lifetime maximum benefit. I suggest at least 5 million dollars of coverage. You should read through your insurance plan’s outline of coverage or official brochure to see how doctors, hospitals and prescriptions are covered.

Health Insurance Exclusions and Limitations

Most if not all health insurance policies will have a list of procedures and services that are not covered. Most of the items in this section are reasonable and are included in the contracts of their competitors. Policies typically will not cover cosmetic surgery for example. However, there are often exclusions that you will find in one contract but not in others. Maternity insurance is one example of this. Most plans will not cover the costs of a normal pregnancy. The ones that do tend to be more expensive when compared to otherwise similar plans that don’t cover maternity. The exclusions and limitations section of your policy or its brochure should be read carefully before you commit to purchasing any health insurance plan.

Health Insurance Networks

Knowing which medical professionals are in your insurance plan’s network is important for obvious reasons. You should be able to find a list of doctor’s who accept a given insurance plan online or by calling your health insurance broker.

Price – Finding the best low cost health plan

It is easy to compare private health insurance prices, but harder to make sure that you are getting good value for your money.

Comparing Health Insurance Plans

When you are eliminated the bad insurance companies and have eliminated the plans offered by those companies that don’t meet your needs, you are ready to compare plans and prices.

You may need the help of a professional to do this, however one way that I use to eliminate bad choices is to compare similar plans that have different deductibles.

I compare the annual costs of the policies and see if the difference in costs is less than the difference in annual deductible. If a plan costs $1,000 more per year but does not lower your annual deductible by at least $1,000, I remove that plan from consideration.

The Best Health Insurance Coverage for the Money

The best medical insurance coverage, may not be the best plan for you. Often the best plan is overpriced and does not offer an extra dollar in medical benefits for each extra dollar it costs. Make sure that any plan you purchase is:

• Provided by a good health insurance company
• Will cover your healthcare needs well
• Is priced well for the health care benefits it provides