Advantages of Purchasing a Private Health plan

Life is not always easy. Accidents and unexpected events happen. Things randomly change and all involved are forced to simply cope. But when times get really tough, having some form of fortified security can help make life a bit easier, despite the tumult of life. Purchasing a private health care plan can ensure that a person is protected for many of life’s sharpest blows because those blows often involve injury or illness of oneself or a loved-one. Purchasing a health care opens up options and gives the policy holder control, and often times, control is very hard to find during the hard times in life. More options and control over where treatment is received and who gives the treatment provides real peace of mind during such hectic and stressful times. Medical coverage will provide access to private facilities with their state-of-the-art equipment and private rooms. Afterwards access to referred specialists can help recoveries take place in a quick manner. 

When a person is afflicted with a severe illness or receives a major injury, the last thing that they want, or should even have on their mind is a waiting list or the crowded communal dormitories. Their care should be received efficiently and in private for the best results, free of stress and further mental trauma. Purchasing a health insurance is one of the best ways to ensure this. 

While is seems like a long list of tedious tasks in order to find the perfect individual health insurance, it is actually a much simpler process. Finding the right health insurance is a process that is essentially done almost as soon as it begins. There are many financial institutions that offer a wealth of information about the general mechanics involved with health insurance policies. It is vital to be informed before making a health insurance decision and insurers make sure that happens. Through this, a buyer can access some of the United Kingdom’s most prominent names in health care where they can compare prices, policies and find special offers. 

Along with that, the informed, discerning buyer can also chose to obtain quotes from the companies of their choice for better decision making. With medical insurance protecting one from the hard times in life is simple. Many people have a negative perception which makes them feel that private health insurance is of no use when the government provides National Health Services (NHS). Unfortunately there are few conditions that will not be covered by government services, all these instances can be covered by your private medical insurance; that can include even for out of network providers, services or both. And that’s the reason why several people believe purchasing a private health policy could be advantageous rather than paying lump sum money out of pocket.

Author bio: Hi this is Simon John Clark. My passion is to write on Finance, Insurance, Travel, Home Improvement and Home appliances, you can reach me @financeport.

Do I Need Short Term Health Insurance?

 (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)

If you have health insurance, your are probably pretty happy just to have it, but maybe not to happy paying those large premiums. But what would happen if you are between jobs or insurance policies and still want to keep some kind of coverage. This is where short term health insurance plans comes in. 

During this gap in coverage you need something temporary, maybe just for a month or two. Normally, these plans are only good for a period of six months. 

They do not cover the same things as regular health insurance. The more advanced services like preventative medical treatments, immunization, and physical tests are usually excluded with this gap insurance. These plans are normally more expensive than regular and longer term plans. For those with pre-existing conditions it becomes even harder to get insurance.

The main reason people sign up for short term health insurance is there may be a waiting period in the start of a new job when you don't have normal health benefits. Possibly you are between jobs, short term health insurance will continue to cover you until you secure a new job and start proper health insurance.

College students sometimes need short term health care because they cannot be on their parents health care policy anymore. Short term health insurance gives them coverage until they can sign up at their new jobs. Short term policy's also start immediately, you do not have to go through any waiting period. They are also easier to sign up for, they do not have the extensive paperwork regular health policies have.

There are many benefits to having a short term health insurance. But before signing up for any plan be sure you understand how they work and if it is the best choice for you.

The High Costs of Life or Death Dental Care (Infographic)

In a country with the best available health care available in the world, there is occurring an epidemic in dental care problems. It seems the increase of emergency room dental visits is due to the fact that people tend to neglect their oral health till it's to late and they are in dire pain. 

This procrastination of dental care not only costs the patient increased pain and discomfort but the costs to treat their problems is ten times higher than going to your local dentist before the trouble occurs.

Let this be the motivation you need to make an appointment to see your family dentist. I realize how expensive the dentist can be but check out this infographic and see what you're in for by neglecting your teeth.

Source: FrugalDad.com

Boomers Health Care Costs Cause Worry

Retirement (Photo credit: 401K)Boomers are worried if they can afford health care costs in retirement. A report by the Insured Retirement Institute found two-thirds of boomers aren’t confident they have enough saved to cover the cost of health care after they retire. Also 72% of the younger boomers, between 50 and 54, say they are concerned about health care costs.

Those costs can be considerable. The report, "Health Care Expenses and Retirement Income How Escalating Costs Impact Retirement Savings," found that a healthy 65-year-old man can expect to pay $350,000 for health care expenses, including premiums, for the remainder of his life. A 65-year-old woman can expect to pay 13% more at $417,000. Health care expenses increased 5.75% in the 12-month period ending September 2011.




The IRI also shows that the average boomer on Medicare can have out-of-pocket medical expenses of over $4,300 per year. The 2012 Social Security cost-of-living adjustment of 3.6% represents an average $42 per month or $500 per year. In 2012, Medicare Part B premiums will account for over 8% of the average Social Security benefit, the IRI found.

The IRI suggests purchasing an immediate or deferred annuity with a guaranteed minimum withdrawal benefit to supplement Social Security income. Another strategy for boomers who already have an annuity or plan to purchase several years ahead of their retirement is to use income from that annuity to supplement a separate investment.

“Boomers are already concerned about their ability to cover their lifelong medical expenses during retirement–therefore, they will likely be open to discussing ways in which to fund the large outlay that will be required,” the report concluded.


Further Reading: 

• The Mystery Of Medicare
•  Medical Issues Can Ruin Good Credit

Startup CakeHealth.com Wants To Be Your Mint.com For Managing Your Healthcare Expenses

Cake Health is an online system that helps users understand and manage their health care. They have recently opened it to the public. Cake Health provides a central place to track all your healthcare plans online. It updates your plan status so you know what’s covered, automatically categorizes your claims, tracks your out-of-pocket expenses and alerts you to possible overcharges.

“Eight out of every 10 medical bills have mistakes,” said Rebecca Woodcock, co-founder and CEO of Cake Health. “We don’t think managing your healthcare dollar should be difficult. We developed Cake Health to help subscribers regain control of their health by helping them get the most out of their healthcare spending.”

Once a consumer signs up with Cake Health, getting started is easy. The new subscriber adds their insurance login information into their account and Cake Health does the rest. The service will monitor and analyze claims, dynamically update the policy information to reflect claims, insurance payments and deductible payments and search for potential billing mistakes like mismatched medications, double entries and other common errors.

Three key features to Cake Health include:

Cake Health Money Manager: A service that pulls together insurance benefit information as well as billing information from medical providers. Subscribers will see, in an easy-to-understand method, what coverage they have, where their healthcare dollar is spent and, in many cases, identifying benefits they didn’t realize they had.

Cake Health Plan Matcher: A unique recommendation engine that identifies healthcare plans based on a subscriber’s actual healthcare spending, individual requirements and history.

Cake Health Mobile: A bill capture feature for the iPhone and available through iTunes. With Cake Health Mobile, subscribers simply take a picture of their medical bills, and Cake Health Mobile reads the image and automatically populates their account. In addition, subscribers can scan documents and forward them to Cake Health via email at docs@cakehealth.com.

The healthcare system today is run like amateurs today. Having a reliable dashboard online to monitor your claims and benefits is desperately needed. You can use you insurers website but there is a lot of things there and often are hard to navigate. CakeHealth.com takes down the wall between insurers and consumers. Here you will find cost, coverage, and procedures plainly spelled out.