Do you require health insurance?

Dear Readers,

Most of the times we all might be paying for health insurance one or the other way. But do we understand terms in health insurance plan? What are our rights? keeping this kind of topics aside first of all I would like to discuss is do we need to really buy health insurance? If so what kind of policy we should prefer.

Some of us might be paying more for health insurance premium some of us might be getting discount or premium sharing option from employer.

Lets see if you require health insurance or not? Before answering this question first we need to ask ourselves following questions.

• Do you regularly go for annual checkup (which must include complete health assessment)?
• Do you exercise at least 20 min a day?
• Do you take supplement's if you have some vitamin or mineral deficiency or to fulfill your nutritional needs?
• Are you getting enough sleep every day?

If your answer is no to any of these questions probably you might need to consider health insurance as well with better coverage. If you are doing all these things that means you might have basic idea about your health and expectancy about what might happened or do you have any tendency to health problem. In this case also you can have health insurance plan with minimum coverage (which is High detectable coverage Plan, but this depends on other factors).

Now lets look into few more questions about your financial health. Not only your health condition but your financial health also makes a big difference while making decision for health insurance.  So lets look at some questions which will help you making decision.

• Do you have emergency funds to support your living for next 6months to 12 months?
• Do you have reserve funds for health care emergency ?
• Do you have accidental insurance?

If the answer is no to any question? Then without any questions you should go for health insurance with less deductible I know premium might be high for that but in case of emergency there is no option for you to support financially other than insurance. But decision about health insurance depends on your health and weather you can afford to pay for it when its urgent.

There are two types of health insurance plans, low deductible & high deductible plans, insurance companies break them into some more types of plans but mainly we should be aware of these two types of plans. If you opt for high deductible plan you will need to have Health Savings Account ( HSA ) which will help you to save pre taxed money for your deductible.

Simple math which will help you to make decision.  (these calculations are for example the premium may be different depending on health insurance company).

  For Normal plan if you are paying premium of 1500 per month

  For High deductible plan you might be paying around 500 to 750 per month.

That means you will be paying around 750 per month less for your health insurance which you can put it in H S A account that you can use for deductible amount in case of emergency which is pre taxed money. If you don't use that amount you will accumulative more money in your H S A account which you can use for your health care emergency.

But when you need low deductible insurance plan or when you need to visit your health care provider or if  you have some critical health problem which require you to visit doctor office on regular basis,then you must be looking at low deductible   plan, if you don't have emergency fund aside then also its good to go with low deductible plan.

If you are not able to decide as to which plan s good for you then talk to your financial planner who can analyze your financial status and recommend you the  correct insurance plan.

What are you prepared to do for better tomorrow?