A health savings account usually supplements one’s current insurance coverage, although with some HSAs you don’t have to have insurance coverage. These types of health savings accounts pay for medical expenses that your health insurance coverage typically does not pay for. Depending on the plan you choose, the money in a HSA is deposited either by you or an employer before it is taxed so it’s like paying for out of pocket medical costs tax-free. You and/or an employer put money into your HSA account (the account can be set-up through your employer as a benefit or you set up an account through a private company like an insurance company). Usually, your money sits in the account like it would in a bank account, except the money was placed in there tax-free and will may earn more interest than in a bank account. When you are in need of using your money, you may be provided a debit card to pay for the expenses automatically or your plan may require you to send them a copy of the receipt and they will reimburse you with the money in your health savings account.
In addition to health care, dental retirement, and life insurance benefits, many employers offer disability insurance benefits to attract and retain employees. Typically, these employers offer both short-term disability and long-term disability insurance benefits. Some employers pay 100 percent of disability insurance premiums and give the benefits to all eligible employees. Others, on the other hand, offer disability insurance benefits at discounted group rates and give eligible employees the option to select a coverage. Some employers are even offering short-term disability insurance for free, and give eligible employees the option to select a long-term disability insurance at discounted group rates. Â Â
Every individual 65 years old and above must necessarily have a health insurance. Medicare is one popular provider but unfortunately, it has limitations. Although Medicare is doing its job in paying most of the medical expenses, there are treatments and hospital bills that are no longer covered by Medicare. In that case, if a low cost health insurance for seniors is available, it would be a big help in paying other deductibles and expenses that are not covered by Medicare. In reality, most seniors are just dependent on their social security only and an unexpected illness could be a burden financially. With a low cost senior health insurance, the burden is lessened and their savings accounts can stay untouched.
Unlike your private health insurance plan, corporate insurance plans are basically nor comprehensive and detailed. Since the corporate insurance plan is being provided by the company and purchased as group insurance for all the employees, the coverage may not be sufficient in some areas. Like for example, it will not cover those employees undergoing cancer treatment.
Another thing you should know about corporate insurance plans is that they are not transferable. The coverage of your insurance plan with the company you are currently working for may or will not be the same coverage that you will have with the other company you are planning to transfer to. One day if you choose to leave your company and transfer to another, consider checking your options regarding your insurance plan.
Every year, roughly 759,000 children with no health insurance are hit with a major asthma attack. About 30 percent of these families where the children belong are earning over 200 percent above the federal poverty level which leaves majority of the children disqualified from availing of the health insurance program delivered by the State for the children. Serious health conditions can only be avoided if these children are provided with ongoing treatment issued by a primary care provider. The absence of this will mean an exposure to the risk of ongoing symptoms which will ultimately lead to hospitalization. Some of these children however have acquired health insurance a bit too late.
The AMA or American Medical Association has plans of tripling their spending in the campaign of promoting the issue of the uninsured population in the coming presidential elections according to the Chicago Tribune. There is a plan for AMA to spend close to $15 million in the campaign of Voice for the Uninsured where it spent a total of $5 million during the campaign’s launching towards the end of 2007. The campaign has already begun to hit the airwaves in cable news and even entertainment programs. Future plans for the campaign includes print ads in daily and weekly magazines and newspapers preferably with national circulation.
As the economy slows more and more, so does the ability of people to obtain proper care when needed. Most Americans have no health care insurance/coverage and the alarming thing is that statistics show, almost all have had instances(twice actually) within the past two years without any health care coverage. The incoming administration aims to make health care one of the most pressing issues but as jobs are shed from all levels of the economic machine, this remains to be seen. Private health care is still quite expensive and public sponsored ones quite inadequate.
Just hope that more can be done to remedy the fate of millions of people who do not have proper health care that should follow the path of the proposed SCHIP for children which is to be a very important move towards reforming the industry. Millions of children have no access to proper health care due to unemployed parents or due to having been laid off. Those parents who have managed to stay on the job are facing uncertain futures for as companies aim to trim down on expenses, health care contributions for employee sponsored care are subject to evaluation by management.
The upcoming US Presidential elections has led to a lot of promises and proposals by the two candidates. One of these is their plan to change the way Americans get health insurance. NEWSWEEK’s Mary Carmichael has written a comprehensive article, consulting with Katherine Swartz, a professor of health policy and economics at Harvard. In gist, here’s her take on the two different plans:
McCain’s plan: to take away the tax break workers get on health insurance at their jobs, and give people who buy their own insurance $2,500 ($5,000 for families) in tax credits.
Their prediction: Low-income people would have a hard time getting affordable insurance on their own. In the long run, employers would probably stop offering health insurance, and more people would end up uninsured than there are now.
Obama’s plan: An insurance exchange that looks like the Health Connector used in Massachussets. Every plan would have a minimum set of benefits, and you would get a subsidy if your income is below the threshold.
Their prediction: The total cost will be more than the estimate. His requiring insurers to cover pre-existing conditions would probably raise premiums. Although children and more people would be covered than there is now, some adults will continue to be uninsured.
With the idea of diversifying coming to the forefront, Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, an Indian pharma, is thinking of going into the pharmacy retail business and eventually into health services as well. The move to go into the health insurance market is not as original as it might seem since the Apollo Hospital Group of India has already started to tie up with DKV which is a European insurance provider in order to facilitate the inception of a health insurance provider company in the country. The diversification although costly may prove to be profitable for the company in the long run considering only three percent of the Indian population is insured and a pharmacy market worth $5 billion ready to be taken.
Haven’t been insured in six months or more? You’re in luck if you live in Florida.
There’s a new law signed last Wednesday by Gov. Charlie Crist that lets insurance firms to offer a basic package for health plans without the usual required coverages. The good news? It might just cost Floridians $150 a month.
“It is not the Cadillac of health plans, but it offers something very, very important for the citizens of our state,” the governor said. Shrinking the number of people in Florida without health insurance, now about 3.8 million, has been one of Crist’s top priorities.
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