By: Health Insurance
Submitted: 2009-09-23 17:20:50 | Word Count: 615
Many middle aged Americans, from 50 to 65, need an individual health insurance plans. Baby boomers are leaving their normal jobs for various reasons, and instead of deciding to seek another job, they have decided to forge ahead with self employment. This group has great skills and business knowledge, and should be in a great position to begin living their dream of having their own business. However, sometimes just obtaining an affordable major medical insurance plan emerges as the major stumbling block for success.
Now unlike younger people, say in their 20s and early 30s, middle aged people understand that health insurance can protect their financial lives if they should become ill or have an accident. You adults think they will live forever, and also, do not risk as many assets most of the time. And yet, it is usually simple to find major medical for younger people. People over 50, who are not old enough for Medicare, will cost more to cover based on their age. But beyond age, middle aged adults are much more likely to have developed some health issues.
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The health issues may be minor and controlled. A little extra weight, controlled high blood pressure, and other chronic problems will not exclude them from being accepted for health insurance, but it will often cause rates to be considerably higher, sometimes 25 - 50%. More severe health problems like diabetes, even if it is well controlled, will make an applicant marked uninsurable by most major medical insurance companies. If a person cannot qualify for private insurance, what options are left?
Well every state in the US has some sort of program for people who are considered high risk applicants. Some states have a risk pool with guaranteed access. However, in some cases these policies do have waiting periods for pre-existing conditions, and these policies also come with hefty premiums. Because these plans are anything but standard across the US, you would need to check with a local insurance agent or your state’s insurance department. If the state program is an expensive high risk pool, I would suggest that an applicant take the highest possible deductible to keep premiums as low as possible.
Some older people have to take a part time job, even a menial job, just to get the health insurance. Then they use the rest of the time to get their business going. Or sometimes one spouse takes the part time job, leaving one free to work full time on the new business. Then when the new business has some momentum, and even has a couple of employees, they can go out and obtain their own small group insurance plan where pre-existing conditions are accepted, or feel as if they have enough revenue coming in to justify the expense of an individual health insurance plan.
However, some older applicants, who have savings and only minor or no health problems, cut their premium another way. They have savings, and they choose to take out a high deductible health plan, sometimes with an HSA (Health Savings Account). A deductilbe of 5 or 10 thousand dollars may seem very high. COnsider that the actual payments for a higher deductible plan will be less, so it is valuable to use some of the savings to start an emergency fund.
Author Resource:-
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