How to buy health insurance

 

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CNN.com

12 March 2009 Thursday 3:47 PM EST

SECTION: HEALTH

LENGTH: 1129 words


TITLE: How to buy health insurance

Signature: By Elizabeth Cohen CNN Senior Medical Correspondent



After her sister nagged him for eight years to go to the doctor, Kurt Berger finally had a physical end of last year. Then in January, he received a telephone call from his doctor: Tests showed he had prostate cancer.

He feared he would die. "I just put the phone and went into my room and started crying," said Berger, 58. But he felt some relief, at least, he had health insurance. Since Berger has not received insurance through his job as a maintenance worker at a church in Baltimore, Maryland, he had bought a policy on his own.

"I thought at $ 76 per month is pretty good," recalls Berger. But now, weaknesses in the policy are beginning to emerge. For example, it has to find his insurance does not cover the salaries of its influence, so he uses his savings to pay for them.

As Berger learned, choosing a good health insurance policy you can be a daunting task. "When you buy your own coverage, you are walking through a minefield," says Karen Pollitzer, project director of Georgetown University's Health Policy Institute. To understand the fine print, you need a lawyer sitting next to you. "

As the economy deteriorates, more consumers find themselves walking through this minefield. During the last four months, 2.6 million jobs have disappeared, and analysts say half of these people have also lost their employer-sponsored health insurance.

So when you are there for the purchase of insurance, how do you discern good from bad policy? It can be very difficult, experts say. "I am a veteran of 35 years in insurance, and I still do not understand," said Rex Bowden Sr., Global Insurance Consultants. "It is fluid. Sometimes what you think that means he will not said May. "


For starters, you can watch rating plans for health care by the National Committee for Quality Assurance, which, in cooperation with the U.S. News & World Report, is also a list of the best commercial health plans.

You can also watch the orientation of the Insurance America's Health Insurance Plans, Families and USA Patient Advocate Foundation. For help in understanding the terms of insurance, see the glossary of the NCQA, the glossary or the state of New York.

The eHealthInsurance.com you can compare the basis of a variety of plans. If you do that, here are five critical questions that experts say you should always ask.

1. What is the amount of my premiums and change?

Make sure you get bonuses, in writing - and how long you will pay that rate. Sometimes, the rate that you mentioned will not last long.

"Think of it as a credit card. Sometimes you get a nice, low introductory rate, then after one year, the rate skyrockets," said Steve Luptak, executive director of health advocacy.

2. What are the deductibles and co-pays?

Know what you pay for. A deductible is how much you pay your pocket each year before insurance kicks in. Even after you have met your deductible, you'll probably still to fork over a co-payment each time you see doctor, is a procedure, or go to the hospital. For example, you may have to pay $ 25 for an office visit or $ 50 for a hospital stay. Visit CNNhealth.com, your connection for a better life

3. Does the insurance company licensed in my state?

Fraud occurs, Luptak said. "The company is in business when you need it, or is" Shifting Sands Mutual? "

According to reports from governments, employers and individuals are vulnerable to unauthorized persons or false health insurance sales. In 2003 a Government Accountability Office report, there were at least 144 companies identified for the sale of false coverage to more than 200,000 policyholders - leaving at least 252 million dollars in unpaid medical.

To make sure the company you are about to send your money is legitimate, go to the National Association of Insurance Commissioner's Web site and find state-by-State complaints and financial information on insurers. NAIC also has a list of licensed insurance companies.

Experts also recommend checking if the insurance company is financially. "There is nothing worse than being provided only to find that they are going out of business," says Bowden. You can search the credit rating of a society of free websites AM Best or Standard and Poor's.

4. I'm buying a short term or long-term plan?

In a recent article in Time magazine of the national policy correspondent Karen Tumulty wrote about the struggle of his brother with an insurance company that refused to pay for his treatment for kidney disease. The problem: For six years, without realizing it, he had bought a set of six months, insurance policies instead of a long-term policy.

"Each policy is treated as a new customer," Tumulty said in his article. "In addition to looking back Pat medical records, the company noted the results of tests in December, eight months earlier. Even if doctors Pat did not determine the precise cause of the problem until next July, his kidney disease is still considered a "pre-existing condition" - meaning his insurance will not cover because it is now another six months, the policy that he had when he won the first Test. "

The solution: Be wary of short-term politics.

"Do not buy," said Pollitzer, project director of Georgetown University's Health Policy Institute. "If you get sick, they will take your coverage to him.


5. Should I consider going with COBRA?

If you have voluntarily or involuntarily laid off from your job, or if you experience a sharp reduction in hours of work, you May be eligible for COBRA, a program that allows you to keep your employer's insurance. But there is a catch: You must pay the premium in full, which can sometimes be over $ 1000 per month.

Under the new stimulus plan recently passed by Congress, people who have involuntarily lost their jobs can have the government pay 65 percent of the cost of COBRA. There are several rules, including that you have to be laid off between September 1 2008, December 31, 2009, and your company should be providing health insurance to its employees.

For more information on the new COBRA rules, go the Department of Labor's website. Families USA guide mentioned above also COBRA information.

And here is a rule to remember when shopping for health insurance: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. "In general, if you find cheap health insurance, there is probably a reason why," Pollitzer said.

Berger says he has learned that the hard way as his first meeting with its $ 76 per month insurance policy has been transformed into frustration. He is currently applying for charity to help pay for care for treatment of cancer, and to request the out-of destroying their economies.

LOAD-DATE: March 13, 2009



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