Health Spas Guide » Dependents

Coverage for College-Bound Kids: Finding Health Insurance for Your Student

admin — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 17:48:11 +0000

You’ve done all you could to prepare your child for college. You’ve set rules, stated guidelines and communicated your expectations. You’ve done your best; you’ve covered all the bases. Or have you?

Identifying Misconceptions

When it comes to sending their child off to college, many parents make the all too common mistake of assuming that their child will be covered under their health policy—and that their coverages and benefits will be the same while they’re away at college.

Unfortunately, that’s not always the case. Many insurers still cover dependents until age 23, but many are terminating dependent coverage sooner—some as young as age 18. Furthermore, college students that attend school out-of-state may not receive all their benefits or may be charged additional fees for seeing physicians out of the insurer’s network.

So what’s a parent to do?

The Good News

Fortunately, if a student isn’t fully covered on a parent’s health insurance plan, there are affordable alternatives.

Generally speaking, college students and their parents tend to seek health plans from one of three places: the student’s college, a private health insurer or other student organizations.

The majority of colleges and universities now offer student health insurance for their attendants, which often consist of two or three policy options. While traditionally less expensive, the costs and coverages of university-sponsored health plans tend to be more fixed, which may not meet needs of students with pre-existing conditions.

Surprisingly, private health insurance for students is fairly inexpensive. Private health insurance is an especially attractive option for parents and students because it typically covers a wider range of benefits. Your chances of snagging discounts are also greater if you buy a student policy from a private insurer.

Other student health plans are available through student-help organizations like the American College Student Association (ACSA). Organizations like ACSA specialize in short-term health insurance and study abroad coverage, which is especially appealing to students wishing to travel.

Tips to Remember

Making sure the student in your life has adequate health insurance is important. As you ask questions and shop for health plans, consider the following tips:

Know the student’s needs. Does the student have allergies? A need for travel vaccines? Knowing what your student needs ahead of time will help narrow your policy options.

Know how long the student needs the coverage. Many insurers allow you to purchase policies that last anywhere from three months to a year—determine how long the student will need the policy to avoid paying for extra coverage.

Compare multiple policies. More health insurance options mean more options to save. Don’t forget to compare policy benefits, deductibles and limitations while searching for cheap health insurance.

Don’t skimp on major medical. Before buying a student health policy, make sure it covers major medical expenses. The cheapest policy in the world won’t save you money if it doesn’t cover major medical expenses!

Lessons Learned

Whether you’re a student yourself, or a parent seeking health insurance for a student, it’s important to understand that health insurance is an important part of staying healthy in college. Use the tips above to help you find the best—and the cheapest—student health insurance policy!

By: Megan Mahan

Arizona Group Health Insurance

admin — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 12:22:09 +0000

If you are starting out a business in Arizona and intend to employ people, it makes sense to thoroughly study the laws governing Arizona group insurance. You need to understand state and federal laws as well as individual regulations of health insurance companies in order to provide the best care you can for your employees while also protecting yourself as the employer.

There are some basic elements of Arizona group insurance. If you have a small business in Arizona (if you employ only two to fifty employees during one calendar year), you are not required to provide group health insurance to your employees. But sometimes you need to do this as an added incentive to your hard workers and potential recruits. If you decide to offer group insurance, you should keep two considerations in mind: health insurance eligibility requirements and premium payments.

You should understand health insurance eligibility requirements. As the employer, you are in charge of establishing the eligibility of your employees for health insurance. Most insurance companies offer you guaranteed issue deals that let you and your employees skip medical underwriting.

However, you still have the power to decide who among your employees are eligible for group insurance and who are not. Do you only give group health insurance to full-time employees, or do you include part-time workers? What constitutes full-time and part-time work? How long should an employee have been working for you before he or she qualifies for group insurance? Do you also cover his or her dependents; and if so, to what degree?

You should also consider the premium payments. In Arizona, you will typically be required to shoulder at least 50% of your employees’ portions of the premiums – this is the average percentage that insurance companies impose as an employer’s minimum contribution towards his or her employees’ health insurance payments. You may opt to cover all of your employees’ premiums; if you do so, you will not be required to contribute anything to their dependents’ plans.

By: Eric Morris

Small Business Health Insurance Plans

admin — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 09:25:10 +0000

Group health insurance plans are especially beneficial for small businesses. Any business or organization employing between 2 and 50 people can opt for a group health insurance plan. These plans have become all the more relevant, since healthcare costs have been rising in the US. This poses a major challenge for prospective small businesses, as they have to find affordable health insurance benefits for their employees. Good health insurance benefits can help you retain valuable talent while at the same time being a draw for new aspirants.

Features of Group Insurance Plans:

Group health insurance plans work by spreading the financial risk between the members of the scheme. Individual members of the group pay less for the same type and amount of coverage. The rates are calculated as a whole for the group. The factors taken into account are age, health status, and occupational hazards, amongst others. These may vary in different states and amongst different companies. While there is no change to the basic policy format for the whole group, you may be able to get better coverage by negotiating add-ons and riders to meet specific requirements.

Small business heath insurance policies are offered in many formats, e.g. HMO, PPO, POS, and fee-for-service. Managed care plans are more affordable than group indemnity policies and are therefore more popular.

Designing the Plan:

Do have a clear objective in place when purchasing a health insurance plan or your small business? The plan should meet the needs of the company and its employees. Carry out extensive research before making the purchase.

The insurance company will need information on the type of coverage you are seeking, age and health profile of the group members. While not required as per the law, you may extend the coverage to the spouse or dependents and pay a percentage of the cost. The accuracy of the information you provide will determine the accuracy of the quote. You will then be able to choose from various policy and payment options. The employer pays some percentage of an employee’s individual premium, approximately between 25% and 50%.

Premiums have grown manifold in recent years due to an aging population, rising cost of medicines and adverse publicity and backlash against managed healthcare. However, the situation is not entirely without hope as a number of companies still offer a variety of choice of plans. The local chamber of commerce can be of considerable help in finding about prospective alliances in your area.

Small business health insurance plans diversify the financial risk amongst members of the group and lower costs. You can also get better coverage for your employees. They have become an essential part of your business plan due to rising healthcare costs. Do buy a plan that meets the needs of your company and the employees.

By: Alexander Gordon

Low Cost to Low Income Health Insurance

admin — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 22:12:59 +0000

Health insurance rates rise and the value of the dollars tends to drop. In times like these we must know how to stretch a buck. This goes especially for families with a tight budget and many children. When searching for health insurance first thing you should do is see if there are any good programs available to you in your state. In your favorite search engine search for the following: (your state) health insurance site:.gov for example searching for: Nevada health insurance site:.gov will give you all the Nevada Government Health Insurance benefits available. From what I’ve seen most of these health insurance benefits are focused on dependents up to 19 years of age. You will be amazed as to how much you can save if you qualify to be enrolled into a Government assisted health insurance program. During my early twenties I had my family enrolled in DES health care assistance. One day I had to take my daughter to urgent care for a fever. The urgent care copay was one dollar. The medicine for my daughter was free. To be accepted into most of these programs you must fit the income requirements.

If you make too much you’ll have to do the next best thing which is compare rates and coverages between providers. If you don’t want to fool around with the whole search engine strategy you may want to visit a site that provides comparison quotes with the convenience of only having to fill out a single form. Once you do compare rates and coverages the goal is to find a coverage with a low deductible, low copays for office visits and affordable premiums. Good luck with your search.

By: Cole Sileven

Health Insurance Over 50 And Under 65

admin — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 20:02:28 +0000

If you are between the ages of 50 and 65 and you are going to be looking for health insurance or are looking for health insurance you need some help. This is a tough age (of course what age isn’t starting with the terrible twos) because you are at a prime age to start developing health problems. Statistically speaking and statistics is the only language insurance companies speak, the insurance company can predict they are going to spend more on 50-65 year old than a 20-45 year old. For that reason premiums are much higher for the older person.

But, we Baby Boomers are a smart group and where there is a will, there is a way. So let’s look at some of the options:

If you currently have a job and are looking to retire or start your own business, you have a couple of avenues you can investigate. First you can inquire if your company will let you buy health insurance through the company plan. If your company will let you do this your employer (assuming we are talking early retirement) may subsidize part of your premiums. If not, you still get group rates which are a whole lot cheaper than individual rates. If you are married and your spouse is still working strongly consider adding yourself to his/her plan if that option is available to you.

The next option (if you currently have a job which provides health insurance) is COBRA or Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act. COBRA lets former employees and their dependents continue their employer’s group coverage for up to 18 months. The best thing about COBRA is it is guaranteed. Your former employer’s insurer can’t turn you down even if you have a chronic medical condition. The worst thing about COBRA is the cost. Your employer generally covers 70% or more of your health insurance premium. With COBRA you have to pay the whole premium plus administrative costs. Industry surveys indicate based on an average premium (for 2007), a former employee would have to pay more than $373 a month for individual coverage and more than $1,008 a month for family coverage.

If you are not currently employed by a company who provides health insurance there are still choices for you. If you have pre-existing conditions such as diabetes or high blood pressure you can receive coverage through a state high-risk health program designed to help those with medical conditions that prevent them from getting insurance. Again though like COBRA the premiums can be quite high.

You can also check out professional organizations you could join or are already affiliated with to see if they offer health insurance policies for members. Because these are group plans, the premiums may be less than what you would pay in the individual market.

Finally, there is the individual health insurance option. There has been some progress in terms of offerings of policies for the 50-65 year age group market mainly because insurers see this age group as a potential growth market. Many Baby Boomers are in good health and have higher income than younger people. Also insurance companies hope that retirees will still purchase their products, such as supplemental insurance, even after they’re eligible for Medicare. Some of policies currently offered may have premiums as low as $200 per month for people who are in good health and willing to pay a high deductible. Many insurance advice columnists recommend combining a high deductible individual health insurance policy with a health savings account. HSA contributions are made with pretax dollars, and any money left over in the account at the end of the year is rolled over for future use. Withdrawals are not taxed if used for qualified medical expenses.

By: Marilyn Katz