OUR VIEW: Better safe than sorry with health insurance
When you get sick or have an accident, how do you pay for your doctor’s or hospital visit? Do you have a considerable savings allowing you to pay the cost straight from your checking account? Doubtful. You probably have some kind of insurance. Whether through your parents, employer, or the university, you or your parents pay a monthly premium giving you access to certain health care benefits at little or no direct cost to you.
One of the big pulls of the new health care bill allows those of us taking advantage of our parents’ insurance plans to stick with those plans until age 26, whether we are single or married. Which sounds awesome, really. However, the cost of insurance once we hit 27 could be significantly higher than it is now because of the upcoming changes.
The health care bill will require everyone in the country to have health insurance by 2014. If someone chooses not to buy health insurance, a tax fine will be imposed, costing roughly the equivalent of what your insurance premium would be – so you’ll be paying anyway, might as well choose what you’re paying for and get an insurance plan.
The costs may be subsidized by the government for people under a certain income bracket, but everyone will still have to purchase an insurance plan. Some employers will continue to offer insurance benefits, but the insurance policies will have to meet a certain standard set in the health care bill. Employers may also choose not to offer health insurance benefits at all if the cost of upgrading their plan to meet the new standards is too high.
The most important thing for us to do is educate ourselves and choose the best option for us, whether it is now or at 27 when we can’t benefit from mom and dad’s insurance anymore. Find out whether your employer, or the employers your are looking at when job-hunting, offer a plan that meets government standards. Find out how much it will cost you. Find out how much insurance from a private agency will cost you. Find out what aspects of health care each option will cover. Doing your research, even if it’s just a little googling, will give you the best chance of getting the best health insurance for the lowest cost for your needs.
If you have a few years before you need to start on that research, one thing you can do now is start saving. Having an emergency savings will be a great and potentially vital safeguard should you ever go without health insurance for any amount of time. And, if you never need it, you’ll have plenty of dough to purchase an insurance plan when the time comes.