Advice on Finding the Right Health Insurance for Your Family
We talk a lot about ways to keep our children healthy, and part of that means ensuring that they visit the doctors and other health specialists as required. From visiting the doctor for a physical and blood work to visiting the dentist for a cleaning, taking these preventative measures are necessary to ensure that our children (and ourselves) are healthy from the inside out. What I have found is however, that the biggest obstacle for parents and keeping up with their medical appointments is affordability.
Without the proper healthcare insurance coverage, a trip to the doctor or the dentist could easily run a couple hundred dollars, and if you have multiple children, this could add up quickly. For this reason and others, it is ideal for parents to consider looking into the various affordable health insurance policies to select one that will provide a feasible amount of coverage for all of their healthcare needs. Whether you’re selecting a package through your employer or on your own, knowing what to look for is the most efficient way to ensure you’ve made the right choice. Below are some tips on how to make the best selection:
· Consider Your Needs – In order to choose an insurance policy that will cover all of your medical needs, you should have some idea of what those needs are. It is important to really outline these needs accordingly and even consider the various needs you may have in the future. Do you generally need well visits and cleanings? Do you or your children have preexisting conditions that you’ll need ongoing treatment for? Do you intend to have more children in the future? These will all factor into the type of insurance coverage you should select.
· Consider Current Healthcare Providers – If you and your family already have a primary care physician and/or dentist, you may want to consider finding out which types of health insurance they accept. Once you’ve developed a real relationship with your doctors and dentists, you want to stick with them as they know you best. By checking to see which insurance policies they accept you can narrow down your list of options greatly. If however, you don’t have a current healthcare provider then consider asking friends and family members who their physicians are to see if you might be interested in choosing them as a provider.
· Consider Overall Insurance Costs – Insurance is certainly not cheap, however, whether it is an employer offered insurance policy or you’re looking into policies on your own you want to know what all of your out of pocket expenses will be. Most people only consider things such as the co-pay, however, there are other things you could end up paying out of pocket. You will need to consider things like the premium, deductible, co-pay, coinsurance, and more.
• Take into consideration your age
Are you at an age for Medicare coverage? If so its important to shop for Medicare Supplement plans. You will find that Medicare coverage alone will not cover your medical bills and can leave you with large medical debt. This is why supplement coverage is so important.
· Consider the Insurance Company – There are plenty of options when choosing health insurance coverage for you and your family, and discerning which company is best will require a bit of research. However, some of the basics would include checking out the company’s website. For instance, if someone were interested in USHealth Group for insurance coverage, they would want to review the website and check out the information provided such as the types of services they offer, how much it would cost, and how their insurance would benefit you as a consumer. Based on the findings from the company website you would be able to determine whether USHealth Group Insurance was the best option for you. Also, asking others who have the insurance you’re inquiring about would allow you to get a firsthand experience on what you’d be dealing with.
Using all of the criteria listed above should most certainly help you in selecting the best health insurance coverage for you and your family. While affordability is certainly a factor, you want to look at all aspects to ensure that you are making a choice not based on cost alone, but overall quality as it pertains to your healthcare needs. Remember, part of making sure that your family is healthy requires more than ensuring that they eat healthy, but also that they maintain medical appointments to get a clear understanding of what’s happening on the inside. Choosing adequate health insurance can ultimately make this job a lot easier and affordable to carry out.
15 Comments
Sandra Watts
We have insurance through my husband’s work but since that Obama Care thing it sucks!!!
Rosanne
This is one of the hugest expenses a family can have so it’s really important to make the right decision.
Sarah L
I have good health care insurance and I need it with my RA.
Debbie F
Unfortunately a lot of people don’t buy health insurance because it’s not sexy.
who wants to give up money monthly for something they may or may not use? They’d rather get an apple watch or new tv.
But then again I’d hate for it to be mandatory.
what can you do?
great information!
Shayna Gier
These are all very important things to take in consideration! Health insurance is so costly, that you really do have to think about what you really need, in order to not end up wasting your money. Unfortunately, we’re of the lower income brackets, so the decision is made for me by the insurance that my husband’s work provides. If I’m ever able to be choosy and find my own insurance, then I will definitely refer back to this post to make sure I don’t overlook something and end up wasting my money
James Robert
Finding the right insurance can drive you crazy but we are finally there and covered.
Nikolina
thank you for all the useful information! 🙂
Tamra Phelps
Fortunately, we are all covered. Finding good insurance can be overwhelming & feel like a hit or miss thing sometimes!
Rachel Beltz
We are actually switching carriers soon… this post reminded me that I need to start making a pros and cons list for each provider!
Marnie G (Derrick Todd)
It is really important to have the type of coverage you need. There are many options to choose from.
Rosie
Be careful when choosing according to providers, because there have been instances where a company did not update their list for the new year, and ppl joined based on who they thought was a provider, and then had a lot of problems when that provider was not there any more. Not sure how you can confirm, but it would be worth the extra effort, just in case.
Natalie
Health insurance should be a priority for any family. This was a very helpful article with great insight.
Laura
Thankfully, we have health insurance through my husbands work. These are great tips though!
KATE SARSFIELD
In Ireland all primary health services eg doctors are free for children up to 5, anyone over 70 & anyone on low income/benefits. Even if you don’t fit these criteria there are other options to lower the cost and of course any prescribed drugs cost only €2.50 each. We use private health insurance to cover certain hospital expenses. For instance, my recent operation was completely covered by my private insurance. Without the insurance. it would have cost about $30,000 – way out of my league. Of course in the UK they have the National Health Service, where everything is free for everyone, but the waiting lists are long.
Tiana
In our case, my children are covered under my husband’s work. We pay a monthly deduction from his paycheck to have them added to his policy. Insurance is so tricky and expensive!