Health Insurance News

Things to Be Careful of when Shopping

First if all we live in Florida and our state is home to some of the craziest people who scheme all day about how to get a piece of your money.  Now usually I believe its caveat emptor as it is up to you what you buy or don’t buy.  But if someone is messing with your health and your ability to get medical care it might be one of the most horrid things a person can do.  This does not mean I excuse Bernie Madoff or any other shyster but there is a special place for people who would purposefully mess with your ability to have medical care.  A better question would be why are they allowed to sell their schlock in Florida to begin with but that is another article for another time.

I will  say in 95% of cases you should never buy a medical discount plan, unless  you know exactly what your buying and you have no other choice such as if you can no longer afford but the most basic hospital coverage or if you cannot get approved for any other coverage including all government and local plans, and lastly that you can find one for literally no more then $30 per month then I guess it would be alright.  But again these are not necessary and will sometimes hurt you more then help you as they might impede us from getting you a social program through the county, state, or federal government. If you are about to buy a discount plan, unless it is to be paired with an actual health insurance policy with a high deductible (AND EVEN AT THAT POINT YOU SHOULD BE CONCERNED) you should pick the phone and call us at 888-803-5917.  If someone is offering you a plan that is $100 or more and is a discount plan in Florida I can tell you to just say no.  I have never heard anyone tell me that their discount plan was either good or worth it. (Most people are usually not happy with their actual health insurance policy either but at least we discuss those situations and people are in Washington right now trying to fix it)

The other policies to watch out for specifically would be anything from Health Markets such as Mega, Midwest, and United American. If you have bought one of these policies or any policy not from a carrier that I am about to mention, you should walk or run over to your files and pull out the policy right now. Aetna, Avmed, United/Neighborhood/Golden Rule, Humana, Cigna, Vista, Coventry, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida. This is the list of all the carriers that we currently deal with. If you have any other carriers, you should look at your policy and look at the first page and make sure that besides your deductible,  and just look at your coinsurance and/or co-pays which is your maximum out of pocket is firstly a definite number and number two a number  less then $10,000. If your total exposure is more then $10,000 or if it is not actually spelled out in your policy then usually something is amiss.  Many companies will sell you a policy with no defined maximum out of pocket, I could name these carriers but suffice it to say that you should always have a defined moop (maximum out of pocket). Secondly, you should have one annual deductible, not one per incident. And lastly and also very important, there should be no caps on anything except your lifetime maximum which should be at least 1 million but is usually 3-5 million.  If you are unsure about your current health insurance carrier then you should call our offices and let us either look at it or tell you about it.

East Coast Health Insurance is one of Florida’s Top Individual Health Insurance Companies.  We sell all eight of Florida’s major health insurers and continually add and update our policies.  We can be reached for a free consultation @ 888 803 5917.

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