Short term health insurance is a good way to have a low cost alternative to your standard health insurance plan. If you’re someone that is both fairly young and in good physical condition then you should consider getting some short term health insurance in opposition to a more extensive health insurance plan.
You’ll find that with many of the short term health insurance plans the monthly premium that you’re going to have to pay to the insurance company is going to be quite low. You’ll find that most typically these plans are going to be around $30-$60 dollars rather than the hundreds you’re going to be paying with a more standard plan. This is even going to be cheaper than if you go with a company plan as your monthly premium is going to be right around the same amount as your monthly premium with the short term medical insurance plan.
The one thing that you’re going to need to keep in mind is that there are going to be a lot of things that won’t be the same as if you were to have a full health insurance plan so you need to make sure that you’re completely aware of the differences and make the best and wisest decision for you.
We talk about some of those things below.
Benefit Eligibility
The major difference with the short term health insurance plan is that you’re not going to be eligible for the many benefits that you’d receive if you had a standard health insurance plan. Rather than having than having non-emergency doctor’s visits; such as, yearly checkups, elective surgical procedures fully or partially covered you’ll have to pay for all of this out of pocket with the short term medical insurance.
The costs for your prescription drugs and if you’re a woman your ob-gyn visits won’t be covered either. Additionally, the maternity related costs as well as delivery aren’t covered by a short term health insurance plan; although you can potentially be covered from other sources.
If you are someone that has complications or have genetic predispositions for illnesses; etc… you’re going to want to consider a full health insurance plan rather than a short term plan. Also should you be a woman that is planning on having children a full health insurance plan is well worth the premium when it comes to the costs of having to have a child. If you’re a male that has his spouse on the medical policy you should consider the full health insurance policy if you’re going to have kids like in the previous example.
Medical Emergencies
With medical emergencies, should you have one your short term health insurance policy will compensate you to a capped amount which is usually no less than 100k though. This would payout after you’ve reached your deductible you signed up for with the policy and then the short term plan would pay out after that up to your policy limits.
The deductible on most short term health insurance plans is going to range anywhere around $1k-$10k and when it comes to the deductible the higher the deductible the lower the premium and vice versa.
Insurance Cap
You’ll be looking at a 6 month to 1 year cap on most of the short term health insurance plans; however, once the cap has expired you’re then free to sign up with another short term health insurance provider.
Considerations
Getting a short term health insurance policy is not going to be the right decision for everyone. Like mentioned above if you have medical problems and you need to see a doctor regularly and need to make purchase of expensive prescription drugs you need to start looking to a standard health care provider so you’ll be able to get assistance in helping in the cost of these bills.
If you don’t have a health insurance option through a job and cost is a high factor you’re going to find a very reasonably priced option with the short term medical insurance policy. It might not cover everything but it is definitely better than nothing should you have a major medical emergency; at that point it could be invaluable.
