Health Insurance Articles
Why It Is Important To Keep Active Health Insurance Coverage
2010-11-23
If you have active health insurance you don't ever want your health insurance coverage to lapse. Even if you think that you can save money by dropping your policy for a few months that can be a detriment not only to your health but also to your wallet in the future. There are five main reasons why you want to keep your health insurance policy current.
The first reason to keep active health insurance coverage active is that many insurance carriers may refuse to provide plans to those that had lapsed coverage. The state of your health can be different from past medical records. They may not want to take a chance on paying any claims.
The next reason that you should have active health insurance is so that you will not have to pay for any medical bills out of your own pocket. If you don't have coverage and get ill you may end up paying for many procedures and office visits yourself. Although it is against the law to not provide medical treatment to anyone they can still charge you for the bill. That is a steep price to pay.
The impending bills from an unexpected doctor or hospital visit can create a pinch in your financial budget. Too many medical bills can damage your cash flow. This can prevent you from paying other bills in a timely manner. This will affect your credit. If you do not pay medical bills they will be turned into the credit bureaus. This will lower your credit score and make anything else that you buy cost more.
If you are lucky enough to get health insurance coverage the cost may be twice as much as what you previously paid. Due to the higher risk that insurance companies take they will charge you more to compensate for it. They would consider you a higher risk because they do not know the current state of your health. If you were not going to the doctor on a regular basis while uninsured you could have contracted an ailment or disease which needs constant medical attention and care. This can cost more than the insurance company wants to pay.
The final reason why you want to keep active health insurance coverage is that while uninsured anything can happen. If you do try to reapply for insurance coverage you will need to state any ailments on your application. If you are not accurate and it is discovered that you lied they have the right to cancel coverage for you. When you tell the truth they can consider the ailment a pre-existing condition and decide not to cover any bills that stem from this ailment.
