Health Insurance Group Talks Basics

With all of the discussion surrounding the new health care bill in congress, there are many left without a full understanding of what health insurance is and how it works.  Health insurance is a mechanism to shift the risk from a person or family to the insurance company.  The risk is actually the cost of medical treatment that you might need in the event of an illness.  In order to accept this risk, the insurance companies have determined how much they must charge people overall in order to be able to pay the medical claims of those customers that need it.  This charge is a called a health insurance premium.

HEALTH INSURANCE GROUP TALKS ABOUT HEALTH CARE BASICS

Many balk at the high cost of health insurance and with so many uninsured in the country right now the cost is clearly more than many can bear.  Is health insurance worth the cost?  The average cost of a health insurance policy in 2006 was around $830 per month for a family plan.  What if you saved $830 per month and wound up with $10,000 at the end of the year?  You could use that to pay medical bills then instead of looking to the insurance company to pay them.  This model works for well visits, or even the occasional emergency room visit, but medical costs are skyrocketing.  Basic emergency room visits can easily reach $1,000 and can be as high as $30,000.  Ambulance visits, x-rays, specialists and follow up visits and medications will all eat in to your health-care “rainy day” fund very quickly.  More importantly, if you have a catastrophic illness like heart disease or cancer, you will simply not be able to pay for the treatment you need.  This type of treatment could be paid for through a health insurance policy.

One of the common questions regarding premium is “why it is so high?”  There are several reasons that premiums continually rise, but the cost of health care has the most profound effect.  The current problem in the United States is that the uninsured that seek medical care from hospitals have to be treated and cannot be turned away if they truly have an emergency.  When this happens, the Hospital has to treat them without charge, which means that they have to make up that cost by charging paying customers more. 

Medical care is also rising due to advances in technology and medicine.  New diagnostic machines and drugs can be expensive to develop and to implement.  Critics of the health care system in general argue that the there are inefficiencies, excessive administrative expenses, inflated prices, poor management, waste and fraud are also all contributing factors to the rise in health care costs.

Medicare and Medicaid are government programs designed to provide elderly and poor children with health care coverage and many argue that these two systems are also contributing to the high cost of medical care.  Doctors argue that the paperwork and administrative duties in dealing with Medicare and Medicaid patients are burdensome and are adding to the cost. 

ABOUT HEALTH INSURANCE BROKER ONLINE

There is no question that health insurance is necessary for all but the wealthiest of Americans. 

To get more information on Health Insurance Broker Online, (HIBO), please visit our consumer friendly website here, health insurance quotes.  We offer medical insurance quotes in all 50 states.  Get quotes from our easy to use portal you can get quotes, compare plans, and apply online.