Have you considered purchasing short term health insurance? If so, it’s important to understand how this type of insurance works. You also need to be aware of the situations where this makes a wise choice for you. Here is a closer look at this insurance, how it works, and whether it is the best choice for your health insurance needs today.
How it Works
First, you may be wondering how short term health insurance really works. You’ll find that this is a low priced health insurance and in most cases, these policies only cover you for about 6-12 months, depending on the specific policy that you choose. Sometimes you may hear this type of coverage called temporary health insurance as well.
This type of insurance is designed to cover people who have temporary jobs without insurance, college students, and people that are between jobs. When you have this type of policy, insurers don’t have to renew your coverage either.
You’ll find that short term health insurance is cheaper than other options. The reason it is cheaper is that pre-existing conditions are not covered by this type of policy. Pre-exciting conditions happen to include any conditions that have been treated or diagnosed before you have this policy. In some cases, insurers may allow adding on to these short term health insurance policies, including prescription coverage, vision coverage, or dental coverage. Wellness care and preventive care usually will not be covered by this type of insurance.
Is it a Wise Choice for You?
Now that you understand a bit more about how short term health insurance works, you may want to figure out if this is a wise choice for your health care needs. In many cases, you’ll find that this type of coverage is much cheaper than COBRA coverage. You’ll find that COBRA coverage is an option that is offered to those that leave jobs that provide them with continuing health insurance benefits and this is guaranteed by federal law. This allows you to keep the coverage you had when you were an employee of a company for up to 18 months. However, you are required to pay the entire premium cost for this policy.
If you want to purchase guaranteed issue health insurance, avoid going with short term health insurance. This can end up making you ineligible for the guaranteed issue policy. Of course, guaranteed coverage is not an option for many people today because it is so expensive.
In most cases, it’s easier to qualify for short term health insurance than it is to qualify for some of the individual policies that are available today. These policies work best for medical emergencies and unexpected conditions that occur. They definitely can be helpful by protecting you from major financial problems due to big health problems that occur. While there are definitely many limitations to consider with short term health insurance, it can be better than not having any type of health insurance coverage.