What To know About Short-Term Health Insurance?

Nowadays, most of the population cannot afford the expenses of the hospitals, doctors and their prescribed medicines. Health insurance is a better option here. Once a person starts his family, there comes a bundle of responsibilities along with which he has to look after his family and their expenses too.

There are many insurance policies, like life insurance, car insurance, and property insurance. Health insurance is one of these policies. There are many options for health insurance plans, but people use to prefer short-term health insurance over regular ones without knowing the complete knowledge about short-term health insurance. So let me brief it for you:

What is short-term health insurance?

Short-term health insurance provides health insurance for a limited duration of time and it is quite easy to deal with them as compared to other plans. It covers the medical conditions for duration of 365 days or it can be extended up to 36 months.

People who are having temporary health issues can apply for this insurance. Those people can avail this policy who are dealing with problems related to medical expenses.

In short, healthy people should choose these health insurance plans because of low premiums and low medical expenses.

If a person is suffering from a pre-existing disease and he has to look after his family, then buying a short-term insurance plan won’t be a great deal for you!

What does short-term health insurance cover?

If a person wants to deal with the emergency medical expenses like your stay in the hospital, to pay for the prescribed medicines, for paramedical services and doctor’s visits, then he should buy this insurance plan. It covers emergency situations and helps you cope with medical expenses that you are unable to pay alone.

Also read: How Do I Make a General Liability Insurance Claim?

What does not short-term health insurance cover?

Most of the time people are suffering from pre-existing diseases and they buy this insurance but it does not cover the expenses of pre-existing medical conditions.

 Pre-existing conditions include asthma, diabetes or cancer. They either don’t provide coverage for these or charge more to cover them. You should not go for it, if you are suffering from pre-existing conditions.

Plus this insurance does not provide coverage for mental health, maternity care, vision care, or dental care. For the treatment of any of these, there are deductibles and coinsurances besides the premiums.

Short-term health insurance plans against ACA?

Before I tell you how this insurance plan is against ACA,we have to know about ACA.

ACA stands for Affordable Care Act. It was enacted in March 2010. According to it, the insurance plans were affordable and there was proper coverage for pre-existing conditions. The individual will have to pay less out-of- pocket amount and it decreases the payment that is paid monthly.

This insurance plan does not follow ACA, so they do not work according to it. There are some examples that it does not cover pre-existing conditions or charge more. They ask you to pay deductibles, coinsurances and premiums due to which it becomes costly.

Before buying short-term health insurance plans, you should be aware of what services and type of care will be covered or not!

Why should you choose Short-term health insurance over Regular health insurance plans?

One of the plus points of this insurance is that it is flexible. It means that you can decide the duration of coverage that can be for a month or a year, while regular insurance plans do not allow the person to choose the duration of coverage.

These plans by including coinsurances, deductibles besides premiums per month, they become costly but it can vary. But as compared to regular plans, these insurance plans provide an ease for an individual.

Short-term health insurance is a better option for the ones who had missed the open enrollments or who had lost one’s job. The reason is that its duration is less so you can prefer it. These plans are also approved quickly.

Cost of Short-term health insurance?

These insurance plans are affordable as compared to the regular ones. You can be charged more to cover certain medical conditions. This includes:

1.Premium:

Premium is the amount that an individual pays every month to keep the insurance policy active. The individual has to pay the premium every month. So to keep this insurance active, you have to pay on time. Premiums are fixed and they have to be paid by the individual every month.

2.Deductible:

Deductible is the amount that an individual has to spend every year for the coverage of the health-related services before the company that is covering insurance starts paying you. After the individual had spent this amount, the insurance plan will cover his medical expenses.

3.Coinsurance:

Coinsurance is the amount ( percentage) that you have to pay after the individual paid the deductibles.

For example, let’s suppose short-term health policy is providing the individual with an 80/20 coinsurance provision.

It means that after paying the deductibles, the insured will pay 20% of the costs. Then the company will pay 80% of the costs.

How to buy it?

Some private companies and online websites are offering this insurance. By reading the quotes, you can buy it online. But before buying, just be sure to check if that company is not a fraud.

Also read: Basic Insurance Mistakes to Avoid in 2021

Firstly, you should check all the options available on the websites or the insurance companies. Then, after selecting one, be sure that before signing the papers, you should be aware of the whole policy. For what conditions will it provide medical coverage?

Will they charge more to cover the pre-existing conditions?

In the end, I would like to tell you that as the world is advancing, everyone should start planning accordingly. It is your responsibility to cover the medical conditions of your family.

And if you are the only person earning in your family, you cannot afford their expenses alone.

That is why the health insurance policies are available to help you in covering those medical conditions. If you cannot afford the medical expenses, then you should opt this way.

So plan smartly!