Because most people don’t have the knowledge on how health insurance works (the amount of time needed for underwriting), they wait to the last minute to purchase protection. First, you need to know there are different types of health insurance plans available to purchase. Major medical PPO plans for an individual has different guidelines than the group Major medical plan you have had for years. There are also Short term Medical plans and Mini medicals to consider. And on top of different products to consider there is a time factor, depending on your current health status, to speed up your selection process or be penalized with preexisting clauses. In less than two paragraphs I’ve probably mentioned five phrases that have no meaning to you whatsoever.

It doesn’t matter what your income is, with the price of everything going up, protecting your income needs to be a priority to survive in this economy. Second, become familiar with your current policy. Understand the layers of protection in the group health insurance policy you have today. You may not be aware of your total liability only because you have been so healthy. When you look you’ll see you have co pays for doctor visits and for your prescriptions. Anything at the hospital is subject to an annual deductible and coinsurance and an additional deductible per occurrence on some procedures.

These types of limits are common in all policies, these are ways to keep the premium low enough for everyone to afford. When selecting an Individual Policy these levels of protection are normally higher. Last but most important, hire a professional licensed agent to help you understand your options; agents’ commission is already included in the premiums, this makes them part of buying a policy. Get in touch with a general agency on the internet; they represent multiple individual health insurance companies. They are not tied to one carrier; this will assure you are getting the best coverage for your needs. Once you have found an agent and an agency you are comfortable with, stay in contact with them, especially at renewal time.

If you are not happy with what the insurance company is telling you about the increased costs at renewal, have your agent shop for a new carrier for you.

Who ever is putting the puzzle together needs to make sure all the pieces are there in the beginning. The best way to do that is to ask questions;a) What are you trying to accomplish with asking this question? Is it just for information or do you have a purpose for these questions? There is no reason for me to pursue a conversation, thinking it’s ending with a sale, when all you want is some basic information. This is where frustration comes in for both parties. Understand why the questions are being asked.b) If there isn’t enough information to answer a question, then you should ask additional questions to understand the situation.c) People leave facts out, more so because they don’t know the importance of additional information. Ask information questions.

People who are writing in to ask for help are depending on you to be professional. Act accordingly.d) Once you ask questions repeat the answers you received back to the person making sure you both parties understand what the situation is.e) Most importantly, once you have answered the question, stop, give the person enough credit that upon receiving the correct information they can now make up their mind to do what they want with the information you presented.

As I stated in the beginning if you asked the reason for the questions, their purpose will dictate if you can ask for an order or not.Asking questions is a definite buying signal, so there is no reason to push a person early. If you answer the questions that are asked and you are asking additional questions, the potential client is going to get a sense of comfort to buy from you. Just answer the questions, educate people and you might be surprised with the outcome

 “I’m immortal, what could possible happen to me”? “I had coverage under my parents plan and I never used the policy”. “Health insurance is too expensive, so I’ll wait until my employer provides a policy for me and pays for it!” The excuses continue to accumulate and the percentage of the 47 million uninsured continues to steadily increase. Without guidance, without warning of the urgency of protecting yourself from financial ruin early, the next generations will find it hard to get ahead in our society.

With one telephone call or chatting online with me, you’ll be well on your way to protecting yourself from financial problems. There are multiple options for health insurance coverage today. As low as $70 per month, a male under 25 years of age, can purchase a catastrophic coverage policy with one of the top insurance carriers in the United States. For less than what it costs for a # 7 with root beer, per day, an “Immortal” can prevent financial woes. It’s too easy in my opinion and maybe that’s one of the reasons young adults aren’t worried about getting health insurance and keeping it. Regardless of the phrase or heading you use on the internet, you can get a quote from Vitalonehealth.com or OxoniaInsurance.com, who in turn gets quotes from all the major carriers in America. Reality is, protect you and your family today. The “Young Immortals” remember your debt hangs heavy over all your family, from your parents to your future children can be affected by not enlisting small measure of great importance now!

First, I was thankful that someone had thought highly enough of me to consider me an expert in the health insurance industry, after all, once I went home and looked at some of the experts on some of the other websites, it occurred to me with the credentials of the experts with degrees, written publications, co-writers on very extensive articles, etc,etc. I wasn’t sure if I could convince VitalOne Health and Oxonia Insurance that I should be their resident expert. We got farther into what was involved, what would be required, and really over all what they where looking for, as we started asking each other questions, it occurred to both of us that maybe this approach would work fine. After all, the only way we will find out if my comments will help the public or not will depend on America.

I’m Tab A. Beverly, a health insurance expert with over 23 years of helping Americans make selections to protect their families. Born and reared over 50 years ago in Miami, Fl. Where I started my career with Avmed HMO, January 2, 1985. Actually Dr. Davis was looking to expand his HMO (Health Maintenance Organization) also to include PPO’s (Preferred Provider Organization). Here I learned about TPA’s(Third Party Administrator), Self-funding, small and large group employer plans. How contracts and certificates where written and the difference. Shortly after starting with Avmed, my wife and I decided to get pregnant. We had a $5 baby, that’s $5. She paid a $5 copay to she if she was pregnant and that was the end of our expense. Well, it was the end of medical expenses for having the baby anyway! About 3 years ago I could no longer stay in South Florida, things had changed rapidly and it was time to go north. So we moved to Hollywood, Hollywood Florida. I can’t believe we went that far north , the people are so different, so friendly. What a difference!!! It was here about 6 years ago I got involved with selling Health and Life policies on the Internet across the United States. It’s amazing the amount of information and what you can buy and how easily it is to buy insurance today. The only thing that hasn’t changed over the years is who you buy from. Most people if given a choice, want to be taught something, they want to learn, they want to feel they know what they‘re buying before they give you “PAYMENT INFORMATION” over the phone, over the internet, right? I know that sounds weird, 3 years, 6 years! I actually started working in Broward County 6 years ago, OKAY! Now on a weekend you can find me on the Hollywood Boardwalk walking with my grand kids( the next time you see me ask me to show you pictures, I’ve got the cutest grand children in the world.) Monday thru Friday I’ll be on the internet trying to find away to help you with your insurance needs.

You would have heard from me sooner but I had knee surgery last week. Hopefully you’ll find this interesting. First thing, I have a self funded PPO benefit plan with no out of network benefits to speak of. About a month ago on a Sunday after taking a shower to go walk on Hollywood Beach with grand kids, “BOOM” it felt like someone set off a “M-80” in my right knee, I went right to the ground and then right to bed. Monday, had a MRI, X-RAY, knee drained, and an orthopedic surgeon tell me to get a second opinion because he thought it would be a good idea to have a knee replacement! So that week I went to another orthopedic surgeon who took more x-rays and also recommended knee replacement but I should have a sports medicine doctor look at my knee. Now, so far it hasn’t cost me a penny, the PPO plan I have in network doesn’t cost anything not even co pays(oh sure, now a baby would a $0 co pay baby, no thank you), but we don’t have any sports medicine doctors in our network. So, because of out of network, not a lot of doctors will take you unless you are willing to pay cash and willing to see you soon. I went to office I had dealt with in the past, once he saw the MRI report I got in quickly. He told me just a good clean out (arthroscopic) should do the trick. So now I’m relieved except how much is it going to cost me being out of network. At first look approximately $9000 ( $3000 deductible and $6000 coinsurance). Pay attention, and check your health plans. Sports Medicine Offices are usually associated with a teaching Hospital, Hence the term to “Practice Medicine”. I asked the Dr.’s office if the would treat this as a self pay and take payment in full from my wife’s employers self funded health plan(approx. 50% of Medicare allowable. They said yes, I then called the hospital involved and asked them if I could convince the sports medicine doctors’ office to agree to a “one time surgical procedure out of network for 50% of Medicare allowable payment in full from my wife’s employers medical health plan”, would they please take the same payment on a one time deal. They said yes, hence saving me $9000. Now I know what you’re thinking, but what you don’t know is I’ve worked for the insurance companies, I’ve worked for the hospitals in a collections position (this is actually how I met my bride of 10 years), so I know a few more things out there than the normal agent. But I would be willing to tell “It never hurts to ask” always works for me. So even though I could save myself that kind of money, I let the second orthopedic surgeon clean out my knee. I felt I only have a couple thousand miles left on this knee so I want this guy to be familiar!!!!!

I look forward to sharing other stories ( boy do I have some stories) and trying to help everyone of you make great decisions going forward.

Thank you,

Tab A. Beverly

As such, all Americans can share in the risk and thus be able to face catastrophic accidents and illnesses for which one average person alone could not truly afford. Again, all Americans, healthy and unhealthy. This is the premise of health insurance. Health insurance was meant to provide health coverage for unforeseen catastrophic accidents and illnesses that would otherwise bankrupt most of us.

Now on to the topic of affordability. This is a different concept and it has a lot to do with the value we, individually, place on our well being and overall health. By this I mean that perceived affordability, the cost of healthcare, whether through insurance or self insurance, is probably very different between two individuals with exact income levels. Two individuals, who, although they make the same income, place a different economic value on their health and well being and possibly that of their families.

One individual could place a higher perceived value on their entertainment expenses rather than on purchasing health insurance or, if self-insured, paying the necessary expenses to help them remain in good health. According to our current laws this is legal in most of our states, that is, to make the decision to not purchase health insurance or not to pay for healthcare services that would help an individual remain and/or get healthy.

This scenario would seem fair and appropriate until the individual who purchased health insurance before spending on other items now has to participate along with all other Americans, in contributing financially to pay for healthcare costs incurred by uninsured individuals who have accidents and/or illnesses. These same insured Americans have to contribute for all other Americans who decided not take care of themselves and their well being.

Now, I am not saying that we as Americans do not have an affordability problem in our healthcare system or that we could not efficiently improve our healthcare delivery system, but that in addition to affordability, there are decisions that we must face to ensure that a fair system is in place for all Americans.There must be changes to our laws that create requirements for all Americans to purchase health insurance, if they can afford it!

As our federal government debates over the system that should be put into place to provide access to affordable healthcare, we have to keep in mind the responsibility we all share to prepare ourselves for illness and accidents by purchasing health insurance. As the number of uninsured and underinsured in our country decreases, the costs to the insured will decrease proportionately.  

Around 7,800 graduate students attend the University and bring with them at least 1,200 dependents, including spouses, children under the age of 19, and same-sex partners. Student premiums for the health care plan are a reasonable $1,434, yet their dependents must pay $3,149. Because jobs for graduate students at the university pay only about $20,000 a year, covering the costs of health insurance for a family can be nearly impossible.

After collecting about 500 signatures, the Mao Ye – the student-elected trustee – plans to present the petition to the Board of Trustees on October 19^th. Ye and others are also working on a health insurance plan that will be more affordable for graduate students and their dependents.

The same study had been conducted twice before:  once in 1997/1998 and more recently in 2002/2003.  Part of establishing the country rankings involved looking at each country’s improvement as compared to past studies.  While all of the other countries saw a decline in preventable deaths by an average of 16 percent, the United States’ rate only decreased by 4%.  The U. S. was also ranked last in the 2002/2003 results after placing 15^th in the 1997/1998 results.  Had the United States shown similar improvements approximately 100,000 deaths would have been prevented.

The survey’s top five countries included France in first place followed by Japan, Australia, Austria, and Canada.  The survey also pointed out the United States spends more on health care than do any of the countries with better results.

The task may seem impossible, but if you follow a few simple steps, you should be able to find a health insurance possible that you can afford.

1. Know the rules in your state – Each state has different guidelines about health insurance policies. For example, the way pre-existing conditions are defined varies from state to state. Before you begin looking at policies, you should become familiar with these rules so you’ll be able to make educated decisions about your coverage.
2. Know what type of coverage you need – Once you start looking, you’ll find a wide array of choices. For example, if you are between jobs, you may only need short term health insurance. Or if you are thinking about starting a family or already have one, then you may need to find a plan that includes maternity coverage and/or that covers more than just an individual.
3. Know what you can afford – Sit down and create a health insurance budget. When you buy individual health insurance, you won’t only be paying the premiums, but also co-payments, deductibles, and sometimes even co-insurance so all of these elements need to be considered when deciding what to spend on a policy.
4. Compare all of your options – To find an affordable individual health insurance plan, you need to know what’s available. Just looking at one particular company’s offerings won’t tell you much. Instead, you need to look at a wide variety of plans so you can compare what is being offered and what it costs.

Action Steps

To find affordable individual health insurance, here are some resources that can be useful.

Check your state’s insurance rules

Remember you need to know your rights before signing up for any insurance policy, particularly if you looking for a good deal. Pay attention particularly to rules about pre-existing conditions (so you’ll know what will and won’t be covered in a plan) and about what has to be covered (often coverage of immunizations and other routine procedures is mandatory).

Find an insurance broker

Comparing health insurance plans can be tricky. That’s why it’s a good idea to work with an insurance broker who is familiar with the rules and policies available in your state. Because they do not work with any single company, they can give you information about many of the policies available and can even help you make comparisons.

Do your homework

To make the right choice, you need to understand some basic industry jargon. For example, do you know the difference between a PPO, HMO, and a HSA? They are all options to consider when thinking about your health insurance options. Take a little time to do some research about the options that are out there, so you’ll have the knowledge necessary to make a wise choice.

Tips & Tricks

Once you find an affordable individual health insurance policy you should be very careful when completing all of your paperwork. Do not be tempted to lie or misrepresent anything about yourself or your health. Insurance companies do thorough checks on all of the information and will refuse to pay your claims even over the smallest discrepancies.