Do you need family health insurance? Can you afford the insurance?
You have a family and like most concerned and responsible adults you worry about their future and well being. With that in mind you know you need health insurance, but it needs to be cost effective. Do not count on that if you are one of thousands of Americans who do not qualify for public medical assistance or has a group medical plan at your place of employment. Many say health care cost has gotten better the past few years and HMO and other managed care costs are better and lower than ever.
Most Americans have a hard enough time paying their rent or mortgage, clothing, gas, food, and basic monthly bills. Who has the extra cash for a family medical plan? Even with a half way decent employer, you would still have to pay at least $150 every week to cover the children and spouse. If you have no children, the health insurance doesn’t usually change. The only good thing is if you add more children the plan doesn’t change then, either. What do you do if you don’t have a spare $150 a week to devote to this? What are your options to provide in case of an emergency?
Many working families are now discovering that, at least for their children, they qualify for medical coverage. Depending on your income, even a working family can get the health insurance they need. In most cases adults can meet the requirements with co-pay. If not, both parents can get individual health coverage through the group rate at work and the kids can get assisted medical with the state so no one has to go with out. A family of 4 earning less than 35,000 a year can meet the criteria for these benefits. If you have more members in your family that amount will increase. If you don’t qualify for that program there some other options you can try. Many states have a plan right above assisted state health benefits that will give limited medical benefits for children if you make too much for the assisted medical program. There are other types of help as well such as Catholic Charities and other regional medical programs that pick up where state assisted leaves off. They can offer economical medical coverage and free prescriptions. There is a good chance you will meet the requirements for the emergency prescriptions and be put on a waiting list for the coverage portion.
When you have exceeded even these options, you now have three choices left. You can suck up the cost out of pocket by paying through your work policy. Save your self the exasperation and actually have some quality health coverage because the alternatives aren’t really attractive. Most employers take the burden of the cost so one could consider themselves lucky to have a policy that is only $150 per week, seeing you are only paying about 28% of the real premium. This can feel like a expensive venture, but it isn’t as costly as paying for a hospital stay. There is also the truly expensive route in which you can pay for a plan straight from an agent or company for the highest cost. You will get the exact same coverage that you would have from your job except as an alternative of paying 28% you pay 100%. That difference is more than you can imagine. The third alternative is not having any medical coverage at all.
This is the trickiest and most generally used health insurance selection for most Americans stuck in the middle of economic brackets. Your choices are restricted here and a lot about whom you are depends on what you decide. There are those persons who make use of clinics for well and sick check ups and routine vaccinations. These facilities charge based on income, so the cost is good. The down side to this is that you are restricted as to whom you can go to and when. These clinics aren’t always accessible for a sick baby if they have others who need vaccines. You may have to wait a few days. This choice also doesn’t cover emergency and hospital visits either. Most hospitals have a payment plan for those people who need income based payment arrangements. So you can go to places and get care at income regulated guidelines and keep you and your family safe. Then there is the second option if clinics are few and limited. Always go to the emergency room. They cannot refuse you care because of your lack of capability to pay. Even if you never pay the bill, and don’t care about the credit rating ramifications of non-payment, they can never deny you. So, take the well-baby check ups at the clinic and all sick visits at the local ER. Maybe this will tip off someone to tell the government that they need to fix the working class people’s options to good medical care and coverage.
