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Saturday, May 2, 2009

Budget Friendly Health Insurance for Your Family

By Ethan Kalvin

Although everyone should have proper health insurance, there are many that do not have insurance at all. Although most employers offer health insurance through their company, many either cannot afford it. To protect yourself from illness and in cases of an accident it is crucial to have health insurance. Most individual insurance plans allow you to cover other family members for a slightly higher premium.

In order for your children to get the care they need it is important to have the proper health coverage. Preventive care is vital part of ensuring healthy children, through regular check ups and booster shots. With preventative health care, you will be covered for routine check-ups, immunizations, and well-baby visits. Many family health plans include emergency care for your child in case of a sudden illness or accident.

Preventative care is essential is also important for the adults too. Adults should have a physical check-up every year, and doctor appointments when they are sick or need medicine. If you, or someone in your family, plans on getting pregnant you will also want to include maternity care to your insurance plan. If your family has someone with a pre-existing condition, ensure that it will be covered under your plan, so that they can get the care they need.

Obtaining The proper health insurance for your family can be done a few ones. One way is to contact insurance agents, by phone or at their office, to discuss the best plans for you. The Internet is also a great way to research what you may need.

You can use a variety of web services to get multiple quotes from many reliable companies. By filling out a simple, secure form, you can be on your way to quotes that you can then compare side-by-side for the best coverage possible.

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Friday, May 1, 2009

Open enrollment for health insurance: What a new employee needs to know

By Lynn Lopez

Part of joining a new company includes dealing with health insurance paperwork. Since you are new, you probably do not have enough time in the day to look over and review all the health insurance literature that you received from the human resources officer. A majority of companies present their employees with at least two health insurance choices.

If the task proves daunting, ask the human resources officer or an officemate what insurance plan they have, or if they know what most people have, and then enroll quickly. You wouldn't want to be without a health insurance. After all, you never know when a medical emergency will strike. Once you are enrolled in your company's health plan, remember that your health insurance plan is not set in stone. You have the option to change your plans and avail of the other plans offered during health insurance open enrollment period.

What is health insurance open enrollment? Health insurance open enrollment period is a specified period of time (usually 6 weeks) during which eligible people or employees are allowed to make changes to their current health plan, including, but not limited to, adding or removing dependents if desired, increasing or decreasing coverage, checking out other health insurance options, signing up for coverage in an alternative plan, or opting out of coverage entirely. If you choose to maintain your current health plan, then no action is required. During health insurance open enrollment period, applicants are not usually required to provide evidence of insurability, regardless of pre-existing medical conditions. You and your dependents cannot be denied enrollment in the health insurance plan of your choice during this period.

If you miss the health insurance enrollment period, you need to wait for the following year to change your health insurance plan. However, most plans allow health insurance plan changes when you experience any change in your life such as birth, adoption, marriage, divorce, a dependent child over the age of eligibility, or a change in employment /employment status for you or your spouse.

Ask your company's benefits coordinator when health insurance open enrollment is. Note it in your calendar. Give yourself enough time to compare and contrast the health insurance plans available to you. Keep an eye on your coverage. Make sure that the coverage suits your needs. If not, make a note of it, so you can increase or decrease your coverage once health insurance enrollment period rolls around. Pay attention to your officemates' experiences with their health plans as well. By properly managing your health insurance issues, not only are you making sure that your health care is covered, you will also be saving money in the long run.

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Medicaid Health Insurance: Are You Qualified?

By Don Bethune

Medicaid is for people who fall into low income groups. Many do not have adequate medical insurance. Others have none at all. The Federal government has established guidelines for Medicaid, but the program is really administered separately by each state. To find out if you are eligible for Medicaid, you must contact your State Agency.

KEY ELIGIBILITY GROUPS
States are required to include certain types of individuals or eligibility groups under their Medicaid plans and they may include others. Statesa eligibility groups will be considered one of the following: categorically needy, medically needy, or special groups. Following are brief descriptions of some of the key eligibility groups included under Statesa plans. These descriptions do not include all groups. Contact your state for more information on all Medicaid groups in your state.

CATEGORICALLY NEEDY
1. Families who meet statesa Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) eligibility requirements in effect on July 16, 1996.
2. Pregnant women and children under age 6 whose family income is at or below 133 % of the Federal poverty level.
3. Children ages 6 to 19 with family income up to 100% of the Federal poverty level.
4. Individuals and couples who are living in medical institutions and who have monthly income up to 300% of the SSI income standard (Federal benefit rate).

MEDICALLY NEEDY Children below the ages of nineteen to twenty one or those who are under nineteen and are full time students may qualify to be included in this category. The state may choose not to qualify all of these children. In this case, it can limit services to what is termed areasonable groups of childrena. This category may also apply to people who are over the age of sixty five. It may also include people who are blind as determined by the SSI program standards or the standards of the state. People with disabilities - as determined by the SSI program standards or the standards of the state - may also be included in this category.

SPECIAL GROUPS Medicare Beneficiaries who qualify under #8221Medicaid are paid Medicare premiums, deductibles and coinsurance. These people are termed as Qualified Medicare Beneficiaries (QMB). Under #8221 people whose income that falls equal to or less than a hundred percent of the Federal poverty level with resources that are also equal to or less than two times the allowable standard in accordance with SSI might qualify. Furthermore, some groups may qualify for Medicare related expenses that are to be paid by Medicaid. Under #8221, Medicare beneficiaries whose income is greater than a hundred percent while remaining less than one hundred and thirty five percent of the Federal poverty level might also qualify.

When your eligibility has been determined, it may be possible for you to receive retroactive payments for up to three months prior to the time your application was filed. This determination will be based upon whether or not you could have been eligible during those three months. Naturally, if your circumstances improve and you become ineligible, your coverage will cease at the end of the month during which the improvement happened. A lot of states have a astate-onlya program in that supplements Medicaid. This program is especially designed to provide medical assistance to people who fall through the cracks. These are the people who have limited resources and income but canat qualify for the Medicaid program. This sort of state-only program does not get any Federal funding.

Mainly, the people who are eligible for getting Medicaid are people with low income levels or families with low household income as stated in the rules and eligibility requirements set by the state you are a resident in. You need to meet these requirements in order to qualify for the Medicaid insurance coverage.

Be sure to contact your state to find out about its laws before you apply for Medicaid. In that way, you will know what the requirements are in advance. If you want to know more, you can visit: http://www.cms.hhs.gov/medicaid/eligibility or http://www.cms.hhs.gov/medicaid/whoiseligible.asp).

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