How Your Health Coverage Will Play Out With the Healthcare Bill
December 2010
The passage of the
healthcare bill has done a lot for younger folks this year. It's now illegal to deny children health coverage for pre-existing conditions, and kids can stay on their parents' policy until they're 26 years old.
But what about older Americans who have to deal with the
individual health insurance market? What can you expect when your employer doesn't offer health coverage, or worse yet, if you lose your job?
According to Mark Miller, author of the online column "Retire Smart," men and women over aged 50 but still too young for Medicare are particularly vulnerable to the whims of the health insurance market.
The numbers aren't pretty. Last year 8.6 million older Americans lost their jobs, and another 9.7 million have such high deductibles attached to their
health coverage that they are considered "underinsured" should a major illness or accident occur.
And with 2/3 of Americans over aged 50 admitting to a chronic health care issue, going without coverage can be a medical and economic disaster.
Facts on:
Individual Health Insurance
Did you know...
More than 8 million older Americans were unemployed last year, most without health coverage.
|
Adding to the situation is the already volatile individual health insurance market, which offers plans but typically only for healthy individuals, and at higher costs than previously employed people are used to paying. Choosing an individual plan can be difficult, since they have so many different costs and benefits attached to each plan.
According to Miller, the healthcare bill will extend Medicaid to all adults living below 133% of the poverty level in 2014 if it's still functioning by 2014. This means that unemployed and struggling Americans in the 50-64 group could qualify for health coverage.
But not until then, and as Miller makes clear, not if the bill is overturned between now and then.
Until then men and women shopping on the individual health insurance market must learn to balance deductibles with premiums, and out of pocket costs in between everything else. It's best to shop around and compare plans from many different carriers, since some insurance companies will offer similar coverage at lower prices.
Plans that offer good deals on generic drugs are also best, as are those with deductibles that are affordable in case of an emergency.
Recent Topics:
