Health Coverage For The Uninsured

I recently saw an article (I think it was in the Entrepreneur Magazine) that more than 68% of Entrepreneur's, whether online or off, do not have health, dental, vision or prescription coverage! The only reason that a good majority of those that are covered only have the coverage because a spouse is working a traditional job that provides it!

What about the college student that has to work to help pay for their courses, books and living expenses and have been dropped by their parents insurance because they are no longer “Full Time Students”? Or the students being dropped because they are now over the age limited under their parent’s coverage and are scared about what to do if they get sick? Do you know a family or a friend going through this?

How about the thousands of people working for smaller companies who have dropped the health coverage to cut expenses, (some doing this so that they can keep their employees but others because they just want more money in their own pockets)?

Any of these situations, and more, can cause a severe blow to a person or family’s savings if an unexpected illness, accident or disease occurs. I have actually seen this happen to someone that I dearly love as a friend! There are people struggling with bills that will take them years to pay off because of this issue. Even worse, people have filed bankruptcy for the same reasons.

Did you know that even if you are provided with Health Insurance that sometimes more of the costs of carrying that policy through a job is transferred to the policy holders? This means you might be paying more but not getting good, quality coverage.

My previous career was in the dental field as a financial coordinator. Basically all that means is that my JOB was to help people find ways to pay for their dental services. If they had insurance, most only covered a yearly maximum up to 1500.00. This might be good for a younger person with excellent hygiene, but for someone needing moderate care for decay, broken tooth/teeth, gum disease treatment, etc., this very quickly adds up to more than people have to take care of themselves. Our office provided alternate avenues to help including finance companies for this specific need at low interest/no interest rates. We also provided in house financing for long term patients with good standing. YES – Defiantly out of the norm for most dental practices but our doctors and staff understood the need was HUGE!

There are alternatives to Healthcare Insurance and it is called Health Benefit Plans. These are discounted health plans that cover healthcare, dental, vision, chiropractic, prescriptions for you and your family. Some have even started including adjunct services such as massage, nutritional counseling, etc. You pick the office you want to go to that accept the program (you can even recommend your current office to join), and pay a percentage of the fee charged for the services that you need. You benefit from having the coverage and the offices benefit because they get paid directly instead of waiting for reimbursement. There is a growing need for individuals to get coverage and a growing trend for doctors moving away from accepting reimbursement payment from large insurance company’s dictating what they can and can’t do!

Whether you need the coverage or want to utilize this as an opportunity, do a little research before joining! This type of coverage is considerably less than carry COBRA for example, but you have to shop around for what fits your needs best:

Compare costs against coverage
Purchase multiple packages for discounts
Take a look at the providers list for your area
Ask your current provider if they would be willing to join instead of losing you
Find what will fit your family’s needs the best
I have watched as other companies have popped up and starting providing similar programs – Compare costs against coverage. Each company may offer similar programs so you need to compare!