Monday, August 22, 2016

#3 In Our Series About Preparing for 2017




If you are not yet on Medicare, and you are responsible for providing your own health insurance in 2017, the news continues to worsen. Last week Aetna announced that they will not participate in public markets in 46 different states, including the most populous ones. There is speculation that Aetna made this move in retaliation for the federal government’s pushback on Aetna’s proposed takeover of Humana but, regardless of the motivation, consumers will have one less major carrier from which to choose coverage next year.

This series is devoted to preparing you for next year and arming you with as many alternatives to Obamacare as possible. I have already identified alternatives in two previous articles, both of which may result in better coverage, greater choice of doctors and hospitals, lower monthly costs, lower out-of-pocket costs when you use your plan, and potential net savings of thousands of dollars, even for those who will pay a fine for not having an Affordable Care Act-compliant plan. Specifically we discussed short-term health insurance plans and health care sharing ministries.
No health care plans are perfect, and even the very best plans are designed to assure that everyone in the “chain of care” gets compensated…doctors, hospitals, clinics, pharmacies, therapists, and other care givers. No health care plans, however, are designed to potentially provide extra cash for patients. Think about it. When you are sick or injured there are many forms of economic losses to you in addition to the cost of medical care. Here are several:

·         Lost pay from time off
·         Lost pay for your spouse or partner if they are required to care for you while you recuperate
·         Travel and parking expenses
·         Deductibles, co-payments, or other unshared amounts
·         Substitute child care, parent care, or pet care
·         Experimental treatments and medications not covered by your health care plan
·         Modifications to your home should you have special needs as a result of your medical condition

Fortunately, there are a number of supplemental products, with more being introduced all the time, that provide direct cash payments to you to help replace most, if not all, of the expenses mentioned above. These products may be purchased individually, and, if properly combined, they can build a wall around your hard earned resources so that a medical crisis doesn’t also turn into a financial crisis. Here are some brief descriptions of these affordable plans:

·         Hospital Indemnity Plans – the best versions of these plans pay:
o    Up to $6,000 per day of hospital confinement
o    Up to $6,750 per day of intensive care confinement
o    Up to $600 per day for confinement for mental illness, alcohol, or substance abuse
o    Up to $2,250 per day for a rehabilitation or skilled nursing facility
o    Up to $2,250 per day for outpatient radiation or chemotherapy
o    Up to $4,500 per day for outpatient hospital or ambulatory surgical center
o    Additional cash benefits for surgeries (amounts depend on type of procedure), including benefits for assistant surgeons and anesthesiologists
o    Additional cash benefits for pathology and radiology services
o    Up to $80 per day for outpatient physician visits
o    Up to $525 per day for diagnostic, lab, and imaging services
o    Up to $15 per day for generic prescriptions
o    Up to $400 per year for emergency room services
o    Up to $100 per year for urgent care center services
o    Up to $125 per year for preventive care services
o    Up to $1,500 for emergency ambulance services

·         Critical Illness Insurance Plans – a sudden illness can have a devastating effect on your finances – these plans pay lump sum, tax-free benefits of up to $250,000 directly to you to use as you see fit – plans cover:
o    Heart attack
o    Cancer
o    Stroke
o    Kidney failure
o    Organ transplants
o    Coronary artery bypass surgery
o    Angioplasty

·         Accident Insurance Plans – the best among these plans provide up to $100,000 in benefits for:
o    Household accidents
o    Job-related accidents
o    Sports or recreational accidents
o    Automotive or boating accidents
o          and more

Most importantly these plans’ benefits are paid directly to you to use any way you choose. Too often you have no control over the way that benefits are paid, and to whom they are paid, on a traditional health care or Obamacare plan. These supplemental plans give you the tools that let you choose a low-cost, catastrophic health care plan and use your supplemental benefits to take care of smaller medical bills and, most importantly, to take care of you, your family, and your finances.

For 2017 the maximum out-of-pocket costs for Obamacare plans is increasing to $7,150 for individuals and $14,300 for families. Now is the time to prepare your strategy for next year.
Thanks for reading.

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