‘Health is wealth,’ as they say. However, in today’s day and age, buying health insurance is as important as staying fit. Healthcare services are very expensive. Without health insurance you could find yourself struggling for years to pay off just a few days in the hospital. Here are some ideas for obtaining health insurance.
Step 1
Determine whether you need an individual policy for yourself or a policy for your whole family. Several associations and organizations offer health insurance for members. Check your affiliations to see if any group you belong to does so. This could save you a lot of money.
Step 2
Check if you already have insurance from your employer. Premium payments for this are automatically deducted from your monthly pay checks. Alternatively, you may have a job package which offers free insurance. If you are a student your university will provide you with coverage, requiring you to pay for it along with your tuition fees. But, if you are self-employed you will need to get health insurance on your own.
Step 3
Find out if you can legally obtain coverage trhough your previous employer during the period while you are unemployed. The Consolidated Omnibus Reconciliation Act of 1985, popularly known as COBRA, allows for coverage during periods of unemployment.
Step 4
Go online and visit Web sites of companies that offer health insurance to individuals, such as Aetna, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield (BCBS) and UniCare. (See below.) Check the maximum health coverage limits. Choose a policy which insures you for at least $1 million as the top limit.
Step 5
Compare policies offered by different companies. There are Web sites that do this. See below.
Step 6
Look up "health insurance" in the Yellow Pages and contact insurance agents in your area specializing in health insurance.
Step 7
Discuss plans with friends, family and colleagues.
Step 8
Choose the best plan for you. The fee-for-service plan, although a common choice, can be expensive as the premium is high and sometimes you have to pay out of your own pocket if the expense exceeds a certain limit.
Step 9
Choose doctors and physicians carefully. You should choose a specialized physician relevant to your medical condition. You will need to do this if you are choosing Preferred Provider Plan (PPO) health insurance.
Step 10
Opting for a point-of-service plan, the other type of plan, leaves the decision to choose a specialist with the doctor whom you contacted first at the time of treatment. HMOs (Health Maintenance Organizations) require you to choose from doctors within their association.
Tips & Warnings
# If you want to lower your premium payments, choose HMOs over PPOs or POSs.
# Be honest and upfront about your medical history. Disclose all your relevant health details to your insurance company or agent. If you give inaccurate or incomplete information, the insurance company might refuse to pay your claims and could terminate your policy.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
How to Buy Health Insurance
Insurance Marketing Tips
Anything can be marketed effectively, and the basic principles of marketing remain the same, no matter what's being sold: You focus on what the benefit is to the person who's buying the product, you emphasize the points of differentiation between your product and the others in your market segment, and then close with the pitch.
We're going to make an example out of insurance marketing here to illustrate the point. The reason for insurance marketing is because everyone needs insurance, and the market is saturated with a lot of products competing. Writing insurance marketing tips for a saturated market is an example of how you, as an internet entrepreneur, can make money by being a liaison to local businesses in your area.
So, let's look at the big questions from up top �" what's the big benefit for taking insurance? It's buying a specific sort of peace of mind. It's providing coverage in case there's a disaster. Let's focus that into marketing insurance: "Wouldn't you like to know that your family will be taken care of, if something happens to you?" is one way to state the benefit. Another one is "It's cheaper to buy insurance for your car than to get into an accident without it. And while you may be a good driver, can you be certain of everyone else?" Both of these are fairly straightforward ways to insurance marketing and its benefits to the end customer.
Now, when I write insurance marketing tips, I'm constantly looking for the edge, the out �" the hook. What makes this product work for the reader and prospective buyer?
To answer that question, I start with doing some research on Google, and look for page ranks for specific permutations of insurance buying search terms, like "cheap health insurance" or "cheap life insurance" or "auto insurance Michigan" �" anything that will help narrow down the search fields. Then I look at what others are doing on those pages that pull up. It is extremely important to understand what your competitors are doing. It helps you keep track of market trends and makes sure you keep your edge.
Are they competing primarily on price, or are they competing on features? Insurance is a mature product category, so it's difficult to differentiate on new features. Difficult doesn't mean "impossible", though. There are combinations of features on policies that can form a competitive advantage; in the field, these tend to be short lived, because someone else will notice what you're selling and emulate it. Unlike technology where an advance can last for six to eighteen months before you get significant product penetration from competitors, writing a new policy package doesn't take much (indeed, they'll figure it out from your own marketing text…)
So the other differentiators are on price (which is the primary driver in insurance policies) and service (which is where insurance companies trying to maintain margins on policies try to set themselves up as upscale.
About the Author
David Ledoux is an author, speaker, trainer and mentor to entrepreneurs. His newest report The Small Business Death Sentence can be downloaded for free at http://bigmoneyfreetime.com
Questions to Ask When Shopping for Health Insurance
Purchasing health insurance can be a frustrating task, but its well worth the time to search until you find the right policy for you and your family. A solid understanding of the coverage and how it applies will make the shopping process easier and can save you a lot of money.
Understanding health coverage begins with asking some questions. You should begin by asking your agent questions about who is covered under the proposed policy.
Who is entitled to benefits under my insurance policy? Will my children be covered if they move out of the house? What if they graduate from college? What if they get a full-time job? My spouse has health insurance coverage through his/her job. Will the group policy cover all the medical needs of my family?
There also are important financial issues you must understand before selecting health insurance. Determining the best possible benefits you can afford is one of the more difficult aspects of insurance shopping. Relevant questions to ask include:
How can I lower the cost of my premium? Will my premium come down if I do not have claims? Can I increase or lower my deductible or copay? If someone in my family gets sick will my premium be affected?
There may be circumstances when health insurance coverage covers you at a limited capacity or not at all. Ideally, you should know what coverage is offered before choosing a policy. Ask these questions:
Does my policy include a network of physicians from whom I must (or should) seek treatment?
If I seek treatment from a physician who is out of my network, how does this affect me and my insurance?
About the Author
To read much more about health insurance topics, including health insurance for self employed people, visit MedReliance.com.
Health Insurance Providers Ease the Problems of Healthcare Services
f you live in the USA, you probably see lots of TV commercials or receive promotional letters from different health insurance providers. If you are like many other Americans, most of those medical policy messages fail to impress you or their glossy informational papers end up in your trash. But did you ever stop to think that you may be throwing away your quality of life or at the least, your ability to access good healthcare services?
Insurance policies are important even though their costs are fairly high. Nothing in life is certain. If you exercise regularly, eat and drink in moderation and take nutritional supplements, you are still at risk due to accidental injuries, viral or chronic diseases and other major hereditary or genetic illnesses. Owning more than one medical insurance policy from a variety of health insurance providers may be a godsend.
Healthcare services like preventive care (similar to the HMOs, healthcare maintenance organizations), long-term care, hospitalization coverage and major medical insurances along with a travel-related healthcare insurance provider's policy is the way to go - believe me, I'm not trying to make more sales for health insurance providers either. Emergencies happen and you really don't want to be caught short without some medical care insurance or limited coverage policies.
We want you to have the latest, best information on how to effectively bill, buy the policies and programs or block the denied claims or settlement payment refusal strategies of health insurance providers and medical insurance policy issuers.
If you are hunting for an individual, family, small business health insurance plan or if you plan on becoming a healthcare services provider who is looking for reasonable health insurance providers, we hope you diligently search for the most cost-effective resources, terms and policy programs you are able to find.
About the Author
Bill Thomas is editor of Healthcare Insurance Providers.Info - the site helps you buy policies or wisely handle the hassles of healthcare insurance providers & medical insurance policy issuers. If you use or provide healthcare services, our tools, articles & programs will help you succeed. http://www.healthcare-insurance-providers.info/
