Health Insurance Articles
Why Buying Health Insurance After Getting Sick Can Be A Bad Idea
2010-09-15
Health insurance is something all Americans need, but no one wants to use. Not only can the premiums be obscenely expensive, but the use of health care services can result in large co-payments or even larger monthly payments. Even with health insurance coverage, many patients can find themselves struggling to make ends meet after a large bill comes for an ambulance ride and hospital stay or repetitive, costly treatments are needed for a condition. Buying medical insurance can be difficult, and can often result in buyers feeling confused and dismayed about what they're going to get and how much it is going to cost them. Some choose to abstain from buying medical coverage all together, and either let their current coverage lapse or simply do not buy coverage at all. While this may seem like a good idea initially, it can have a number of dire consequences, especially if a client tries to purchase insurance after they have become ill.
A healthy individual with little to no medical history should have no trouble buying medical insurance. The company will collect data about them and simply assign them a premium based on an average service use scale that is applied to all applicants. Problems begin to arise, however, when applicants are already sick when they apply. The first problem patients will run into when applying for health insurance with a pre-existing sickness is they will be charged more per month than other clients-often a great deal more per month. This is because the company will require some idea of how many treatments you require, and what their average cost will be. Since it is a known you will be using the doctor, and on a frequent basis, your premiums will be quite a bit higher than average to offset the cost that you will bring.
The other possibility for someone who is buying medical insurance after they have taken ill is they will simply be refused. Private insurance firms are under no obligation to take patients or clients that do not have an existing policy; they have every right to protect their interests and someone with a current condition would represent a great deal of risk, financially, to the company. In these cases, options such as public insurance or state-sponsored plans may be an option, but they will cover far fewer services.
While it is possible to obtain reasonable health insurance after one becomes ill, it is simpler, cheaper and quicker to have a plan in place before this becomes an issue. This both protects your current level of insurance, and gives you the piece of mind of knowing that you are covered in an emergency.
