Individual Health Care Plans for Young Adults & Early Retirees

To meet the needs of these two groups, a number of insurance companies have developed and launched insurance plans geared towards their needs.

For young adults, these individual health care plans include most types of preventative care, including annual check-ups, Pap smears, and generic drug coverage. Some of the plans even offer these services without requiring a deductible. The plans also tend to include other services important to young adults, including discounts on teeth whitening and gym memberships.

Health Insurance cost is a big issue for young people

However, many of the plans do offer affordable health insurance coverage. Some plans have monthly premiums as low as $26. In exchange for those low premiums, however, are high deductibles - ranging from $1500 - $5,000. Plus, coverage for big ticket costs, such as maternity care, are excluded from the plans or are offered as an optional add-on. Most brand name prescription drugs - another large cost - are also not covered by the plans.

While the offer of affordable health insurance for the fast-growing group of uninsured Americans is promising, these plans currently are available only in a limited number of states. The reason for the slow roll-out is the insurance companies are offering these plans mostly in states where they have the most discretion when it comes to turning away applicants. Only accepting the healthiest young adults is another way to keep costs reasonable for everyone else.

For young people without these options, another alternative is to remain on their parents' health insurance longer. In states, such as New Jersey, insurance rules are being changed to require plans to include children up to the age of 25 or 30.

Unfortunately, many of those parents may also need to look for new health coverage because so many of them have been forced into early retirement and are too young to apply for Medicare benefits. For this group - men and women between the ages of 50 and 64 - having no individual health care plans available can be dangerous since many already have medical conditions requiring medication or regular doctor visits.

Health insurance plans for early retirees

Several insurance companies have also created plans to help this group as well. Many of these plans have higher premiums but also provide more coverage. One plan included unlimited office visits and common prescription drug coverage with co-payments of $35 and $15 respectively. Plans such as these remind older adults of the employer-provided health benefits they lost but the premiums, sometimes as much as $400 per month, can be hard to swallow on a suddenly reduced income.

An alternative to offset high monthly payments are higher deductible plans. Some health insurance companies feel older Americans will be in a better position to cover most of their own medical costs but really need the coverage in case of an emergency, such as hospitalization, when the expenses add up quickly.

Although the deductibles can be as high as $7,500, the monthly premiums can be less than $100 per month.

The bottom line is a growing number of Americans have needs not being met by the available mainstream insurance plans . More companies are realizing this and working to create products that offer inexpensive health insurance as well as some coverage for preventative care and for major medical expenses.

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