If you are working to have your family covered by a health insurance plan, you may be looking at a number of options for how to best get everyone the coverage they need.

Generally, there are two ways to go – individual health insurance plans or family health insurance plans. An individual health insurance plan will do just what you would expect, insure just one individual, by name. A family health insurance plan on the other hand will cover all the members of your immediate family, usually two parents and all their children.

If you have a large family, what you need to have may be a no-brainer – have family insurance that will cover you, your spouse and all the kids. But what if there aren’t as many of you? Today’s families come in all sizes. Some couples have only one child. Other families have only one parent with a child or two. In these cases, a family plan may not be the best deal out there.

For the most part the price of a family plan is meant to cover two parents and two children. If your family is smaller than this, it is a good idea to compare the price of individual policies for the members of your family as well as the price for a family plan.

There are some important considerations to make before you decide what type of plan you want to go with other than what the premiums will be.

What are the deductibles? The premium is just one part of what you will pay for health insurance. You also need to know what the deductible will be once you need medical attention. If your deductibles are too high, you may always feel like you are paying a fortune in medical bills before the insurance ever kicks in.

Is your doctor included? If you are very fond of your particular doctor, you need to make sure that person is in the plan that you go with. Different insurance companies have different networks of doctors that they approve of. Make sure your doctor is included.

Are there preexisting conditions? If anyone in your family has preexisting health conditions, you could be in for trouble. Many insurance companies will not accept individual policies for those who have preexisting health conditions like diabetes or cancer. In this case you will have to look back to a family plan that must accept all the members of the family.

Do you have high-risk habits? Health insurance companies are keeping an eye on a lot of health conditions these days to see who is at risk and who is likely going to be less of an expense to them. Two of the things they look at are if the candidate is a smoker or overweight as both of these are linked to medical conditions down the road.



By: Stephen Sikes

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Family Health Insurance rates are constantly on the rise in the US, but one thing is for certain, if you are healthy, your group policy is more expensive then if you had a Family Health Insurance plan. This is especially true in Nevada, Florida, Ohio, Connecticut, and Georgia.

   Right now in the US it is very popular for employers to contribute money toward the employee’s premium but not toward the spouse or children’s premium. If you are a healthy family and you are in this situation it is important for you to speak with a health insurance agent as soon as possible.

     A prime example of this is when my sister in Ohio, started a new job, her family health insurance offered through the employer was almost $800 a month. They contributed about $300 a month and she was left with paying $500 a month to insure her husband and two children.

We ran her a quote through Ohio Health Insurance Quote (who currently offers free health insurance quotes in Ohio, Florida, Nevada, Georgia and Connecticut) and she was able to get an Ohio Health Insurance policy for her family for $355 a month. Furthermore, she approached her employer and the employer agreed to still contribute $250 a month toward her insurance if she agreed to provide her own insurance. Now her family only contributes $105 a month and they have their own policy. This means if she decides to work for another company she can take her health insurance with her, or when she retires she can keep this plan and not worry about being insurable when she is 55 or 60 years old.

Also If you are a student and live in Nevada, Florida, Ohio, Connecticut, and Georgia. You may want to decline the health insurance being offered through your college or university and get an individual policy offered by UnitedHealthcare, Aetna, Humana, or Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield. An individual policy is much preferred because the health insurance is not associated with ones education. Should a student become ill and have to drop out of college, he or she does not have to worry about losing his or her medical insurance.

     



By: Bill James

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Student Loan Consolidation Program