What to consider when purchasing health insurance.

Know the tradeoff between coverage and cost when picking your health insurance.

As many of you know, the healthcare industry is going through more changes. Americans like the parts of ObamaCare that gave them more protections for pre-existing conditions and extended coverage for their adult children.

What they didn’t like was the cost of comprehensive health insurance. Some Americans paid more for richer benefits that they may or may not have needed, while others benefitted from subsidized insurance that enabled them to get needed healthcare.

Unfortunately, the subsidies that were largely funded with new tax dollars [3.8% investment tax] levied on wealthy Americans will likely cease now that the tax is gone.

TrumpCare is becoming a reality.

Going forward cost and coverage are the two variables that you need to keep in mind when choosing health insurance. More insurance options that trade off coverage for a lower cost are likely under TrumpCare. Less healthcare coverage is not bad but Americans will need to read the fine print closely to understand what they are buying. In choosing a policy, everyone will need to consider their savings, disposable income and health status.

Healthcare Issues and Accidents

If you’ve never had health issues, it might be hard to imagine scenarios when you would need healthcare insurance. It’s like purchasing a new car. You don’t expect repair bills beyond scheduled maintenance unless you have had an accident. Unfortunately, accidents do happen.

Imagine catching your pointy toe shoe in your pant leg and doing a high diving off the curb onto the street. Speaking from experience, there is a good chance that you’ll crack and/or break a bone or two. One accident like that can get you well on your way to meeting your Out-of-Pocket Maximum for the year. As with repair bills for your car [more and bigger each year] – same with your healthcare costs. Brand [genetics], mileage [lifestyle] and adherence to scheduled maintenance [check ups] affect the total cost of the annual repair bills.

Out-of-pocket costs

To help you pay for health insurance, TrumpCare will likely provide tax credits for health insurance purchased rather than subsidies and help you save for qualified medical expenses by increasing the annual savings limit for healthcare savings accounts [HSA] so that you can save more tax free. To help you spend wisely, the cost of healthcare services are becoming more transparent and the billing easier for the average consumer to understand.

Some Americans value paying more for the peace of mind of having richer benefits. They think of it as “prepaid healthcare”. Others skimp on coverage choosing a high deductible or catastrophic policy and pay more out of pocket. Whatever you choose to buy is fine as long as it gives you enough insurance coverage.

Just don’t buy the cheapest insurance policy and expect it to cover everything. If you do, you might want to sharpen your “Go Fund Me” campaign skills.

Start with the Exchanges

The government health insurance exchange [healthcare.gov] is still operational and offering comprehensive health insurance policies and subsidies may still be available to you. It’s a good place to start your research. There are also private health insurance exchanges: eHealth, Stride Health and HealthInsurance.org

Choose your Health Insurance Wisely is another post that describes the different types of policies and how they can benefit you. Post your questions to our facebook page or use the form below to contact us. Due to spammers, we don’t allow comments and questions on the blog.