Short Term Health Insurance - What's It For?
Short term health insurance is not a permanent to solution to medical care. Instead, it is a type of policy that can be purchased to cover loopholes in an existing health care plan. Short term health insurance benefits are available for short periods - typically one to twelve months. Sometimes benefits are restricted to six months.
What benefits does short term health insurance offer? The majority of short term policies offer the samer benefits as regular health care plans. However, there are some key differences you should be aware of when you purchase a short term health care policy.
Temporary or short term health insurance coverage is typically non-renewable. This means that if you want to extend the coverage you will need to make a second application. Temporary policies are useful for people who are in-between health care insurance options. They should never be used to replace a standard health care plan.
So if you are currently unemployed and have lost your group insurance benefits, short term health insurance benefits are appropriate but only until you find a new job. This kind of policy may also suit recent graduates or those who are waiting for a plan to be approved.
The majority of short term health insurance are fee-for-service or 'indemnity' plans. What does this mean? Your policy won't generally cover preventative and routine medical expenses. It probably won't cover dental or optical expenses either. If you have a pre-existing medical condition it is unlikely to be covered under these temporary health insurance plans.
Your short term health insurance policy WILL cover emergency medicine, prescription drugs, intensive care, lab and x-ray, ambulance, and a variety of home and hospital care services - depending on the terms of the policy.
If you have a family you will probably be able to extend your short term health insurance cover to your spouse and children. The cost of temporary health insurance is at the low end. A standard policy may cost under $100. But that's not necessarily good news.
Short term health insurance costs are kept low based on your deductibles which may be set at $250 to in the region of $2 500. You will typically also need to pay for co-insurance of 20-50%. Co-insurance is the percentage you pay for treatments. A quality policy will place a ceiling on any personal fees and have maximum payouts in the region of $2 million dollars.
