Our sedentary lifestyle and the ever-increasing costs of healthcare have created a situation where living without health insurance in St. Cloud, Fl, is simply unthinkable. Since most of us work nine-to-five in an office environment, fresh air, hygiene, healthy diet and wholesome exercise are all conspicuously missing from our daily routine. This leaves us vulnerable to life altering ailments such as diabetes, high blood pressure and its associated health and brain ailments.
Please call us at 407-344-1228, or email us at [email protected] for any insurance needs you may have.
Let us take ‘brain stroke’ as an example. If a person suffers a stroke, he will almost certainly become paralyzed for life. Under the circumstances, not only is his earning ability severely affected, but he will also require specialized medical care, perhaps for the rest of his life. Unless, the individual is very well off, he will not be able to afford treatment for any length of time.
This is the part where health insurance in St Cloud, Fl, comes into the picture. Basically, ‘it provides the affected people with desperately needed financial backup when they are facing a medical emergency.’ Here, it is pertinent to note that all kinds of health risks and the uncertainties associated with them are a part of life. No one actively plans to get sick, but at one point or the other, we all go through various illnesses. After all, diseases are a part of life, just like eating and sleeping. This is why it makes a whole lot of sense to be prepared for any sort of medical condition, at least as far as the financial aspect is concerned.
While we can always prepare for the proverbial rainy day by putting aside a certain portion of our monthly earnings, it may not be enough if a terrible medical calamity comes our way. This is why the acquisition of health insurance coverage is one of the best possible means of financial preparation against any sort of health risk out there.
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How can Health Insurance Help?
This is a form of insurance coverage that may be used to pay the various medical expenses that might have been incurred by the insured party. Basically, a health insurance policy works in two ways. Either the insured party is reimbursed for the expenses that may have been incurred during the treatment from their illness or injury, or alternatively, the health care service provider will be directly paid by the insurance carrier. There are different options with regard to health insurance plans and products. These include individual health insurance plans, critical illness insurance, family health insurance, etc. You have to decide precisely which plan or product will best serve your need for purchasing health insurance in St Cloud, Fl. You will have to weave in the premium payment aspect of your policy into your financial planning budget so that it will always have the priority it deserves.
There are multiple reasons to have a well-rounded health insurance policy in place. This holds particularly true if you have a family to support. This way, you can buy a comprehensive family health insurance plan that will help you to take care of all of the many different medical needs of your entire family. However, you will have to keep in mind that the health insurance premium payments that you will have to make for health insurance in St Cloud, Fl, will vary from product to product and according to the number of people who will come under the policy’s coverage umbrella.
But regardless of the expenses involved, it is absolutely imperative that you have a health policy in place for any eventuality. Some of the major reasons for getting a health insurance policy include the following:
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A Steep Increase in Medical Expenses
Most medical expenses and related treatment costs have registered a dramatic increase in the past few years. Unfortunately, expensive medical procedures such as emergency surgery and post-operative ICU treatment can easily wipe out a lifetime of financial savings. And without health insurance coverage, the odds are that you will end up paying for everything from your own pocket. This can effectively destroy all of your future financial plans.
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Ever Changing Lifestyles
From commuting on smog filled roads to hectic work schedules and from unhealthy eating habits and diets to a lack of exercise, our bodies are being forced to cope with unhealthy lifestyle changes. This means we have to eventually pay the toll, in the form of heart related ailments, higher levels of obesity and all the plethora of medical conditions associated with our current régime. If the unthinkable happens, your health insurance policy will be able to shield you against the financial repercussions of most issues of this nature.
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Coverage of Both ‘Pre and Post’ Hospitalization Related Expenses
When we think about health insurance in St Cloud, Fl, the first thing that comes to mind is hospital coverage. This is certainly true as far as most health insurance policies are concerned. They will cover your hospitalization expenses (if you are admitted for a minimum of 24 hours) up to the maximum extent of the policy. However, if you were to go for a full benefit package, then this will also include the diagnostic tests, OPD (outpatient department) expenses and related items. And since they are responsible for a large chunk of medical expenses, you will be well served with a policy that covers all such costs and expenses.
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Additional Benefits
Apart from the above, it is also possible to acquire certain additional benefits and privileges such as coverage for daycare only surgeries, ambulance coverage, periodic health care related checkups and even vaccinations.
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What is the Best Age to Purchase Health Insurance?
Many people delay buying health insurance in St Cloud, Fl, till they are very old and have no other support system left. This is one of the worst possible mistakes that you can make when purchasing any sort of health insurance policy. This is because the older you are, the higher the premiums, and after a certain age, the insurance agency will not be interested in providing you with a policy. Their ‘cost to benefit’ ratio does not justify brand new policies for the aged and the infirm. In the case that you actually manage to find an insurance carrier willing to accommodate you, the annual premiums will be so high that you may as well not bother with the whole exercise.
But purchasing a renewable health insurance policy when you are healthy and young makes a lot of sense. Not only are the premiums very low but just about every health insurance agency will be willing to offer you a plan.
Ultimately, the total cost of a policy is determined by a number of important factors. These include the age of the policyholder, his medical history (if he has a history of medical problems, the premium will be correspondingly higher) his area of residence, and the number of people covered by the same policy. However, it is an axiomatic assumption that should you buy the policy early enough, you won’t have to spend a lot on insurance premiums.
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Different Kinds of Coverage That You Should Include in Your Health Insurance Plan
Your health insurance plan should cover a wide range of unexpected eventualities. First and foremost is the ‘critical illness’ insurance. This is a policy that will help you to recover any treatment expenses that you might incur during the treatment of a critical illness. This can be in the form of a lump sum payment at the time of treatment, or it can stretch throughout the course of the treatment.
You can purchase critical illness health insurance in St Cloud, Fl, as a standalone policy. Or alternatively, it can be a rider to your main health insurance package.
In fact, this is a very important part of your policy. While your regular health insurance policy may cover you for all pre and post hospitalization treatments, the ‘critical illness’ cravat in your overall policy plan will provide you the lump sum amount that you will urgently need in order to start treatment.
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Different Types of Insurance Plans
There are many different types of plans that include both public as well as private sector health insurance in St Cloud, Fl. A few are explained below:
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Indemnity Or ‘Fee for Service’ Health Insurance Plan
This kind of insurance policy basically covers treatment equally amongst all the various healthcare facilities and services providers available to a policyholder. This way, the insured party gets to choose their own preferred place of treatment. As a matter of fact, the insurer will generally pay around seventy percent of the total cost of treatment while the policyholder will pay the remaining amount.
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Preferred provider organizations (PPOs)
A PPO is quite similar to an indemnity plan, in the sense that the policyholder has near total freedom to choose his or her preferred doctor and health care facility.
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Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs)
These are those organizations that directly provide the needed medical care to the insured party. In this case, the policy will include the insurance carrier’s own dedicated primary care physician who will be responsible for all necessary medical care of the policyholder.
Here, the ‘Health Maintenance Organization’ will only fund the type of treatment that has been directly referred by their own doctor. They will have access to a discounted fee structure in terms of negotiated fees for the medical services provided to the policyholders. Since cost maximization is the primary objective, such plans are amongst the least expensive options for health insurance in St Cloud, Fl.
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The Importance of Selecting a Specific Insurance Plan
The nature and scope of your health insurance plan will dictate exactly how you will approach the process of acquiring funds for a requested treatment. Apart from that, your plan will also determine the amount of funds that your insurance carrier will disburse on a given day.
In 2003, the U.S. Congress introduced an all new option known as the ‘Health Savings Account (HSA).’ This option is basically a combination of the above-mentioned indemnity plan, PPO, HMO, and savings account with certain tax-deductible benefits. However, it is very important that the erstwhile policyholder should pair this type of policy with an already existing health plan that has a tax deductible of over $2,200 for families and $1,100 for individuals.
Your typical HSA can help to ‘top up’ your coverage by extending your already existing policy to cover a broader range of medical treatments. Here, it is very important to understand that should an HSA be paid up front by an employer providing medical coverage on behalf of his employees, then the subsequent premium payments will become tax free by default.
This way, a person can easily build up a nest egg of funds in the HAS while he is completely healthy in order to save for any uncertain medical conditions in his advanced age.
However, people who already suffer due to chronic conditions, such as high BP (blood pressure) levels or diabetes (for instance) will not save a large amount in terms of their HSAs. This is because of the regular cost of treatment that they have to bear in order to manage their condition.
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Conclusion
In light of the above discussion, we can easily see that health insurance in St Cloud, Fl, is absolutely pivotal for enjoying a stress-free life as you enter the advanced age bracket. In fact, availing a well-rounded and broad-based health insurance plan can literally mean the difference between life and death later on in life.
Please call us at 407-344-1228, or email us at [email protected] for any insurance needs you may have.