Tag Archives: health insurance

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How to Get Health Insurance for Your Kids

One question I am often asked is, “How do I get health insurance for my kids?” Usually this comes up with the pending arrival of a newborn.

Getting health insurance for your kids isn’t too complicated. Usually, the answer is to talk to your own health insurance company to find out how to add a child to your plan.

If you receive your health insurance through your employer, go to your human resources department. They will be able to tell you how to add a child to your health plan and can give you the forms to fill out.

If you receive health insurance from another carrier, contact that company directly to add your child to your health plan.

If you don’t have insurance (remember: under current regulations, everyone should) or can’t insure your child on your plan, the next place to look is Medicaid. Medicaid offers a Children’s Health Insurance Program, aptly named CHIP. It offers early and periodic screening, diagnostic, and treatment, just as other health plans do.

CHIP has income restrictions, however, so if your income doesn’t qualify you, then you’ll want to go through the health exchange to insure your kids.

One standard that Obamacare brought with it, which now applies to most health plans, is that parents can keep their children on their health plan until the age of 26 if the child is enrolled in school. With the health care discussions happening in the government, check for the latest information about current rules.

As you would for your own health plan, shop around to find the best solution for your family. Make sure your children have a health plan that covers their specific needs. If you know your child will have particular health care needs, review your coverage to make sure it suits those needs.

Want to know more about choosing health plans? Get my ebook set Easy Healthcare: Set Two. It included Choosing Your Health Insurance, and Obamacare, as wells as What You Need First. It is available in all major ebook formats. Get it here.

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What is Open Enrollment?

You may be hearing the term “open enrollment.” Toward the end of the calendar year, this term becomes especially relevant. So, what does it mean?

Open enrollment is the period of time during which you can enroll in a health insurance plan. Depending on where you get your health insurance, this time period may or may not fall at the end of the year. Generally, it is the only time of year you can enroll in new coverage or change your existing coverage. Exceptions may be made in the case of life changes like marriage, divorce, or childbirth.

If you get your insurance through the Affordable Care Act, you are buying insurance through the health exchange. When you hear the term Obamacare, it refers to this type of insurance. Open enrollment has just begun for Obamacare. To enroll in this health insurance for the 2018 calendar year, you must sign up between November 1, 2017 and December 15, 2017. You can do this through healthcare.gov or through your state marketplace.

If you get your insurance through your employer, ask your employer when open enrollment is. You likely will have enrolled in the insurance plan when you started working for the company. After that, there is usually one month out of the year during which you can re-enroll for another year or make changes to your policy. Ask your employer, typically the human resources department, when the enrollment period is and what forms you will need to complete.

Other health insurance options may not have specific open enrollment periods. For example, Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program, or CHIP, allow you to apply at any time.

Enrollment for Medicare is based on age. You can enroll for Medicare at age 65 years. The enrollment period begins 3 months before your 65th birthday and ends 3 months after your 65th birthday.

Although the fate of Obamacare is currently in question, as of this writing, open enrollment is open. If you plan to use this health insurance, be sure to sign up during open enrollment. The deadline is December 15.

Do you want more guidance as you choose which health insurance plan is best for you and your family? Get my book Easy Healthcare: Choose Your Health Insurance. In it, I walk through everything you need to know, including what kinds of health plans may be available to you, what information you should gather before choosing a plan, and some of the terms you will want to know.

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One Question to Ask in the Emergency Room

When you’re being rushed in to the emergency room after an accident, one of the furthest things from your mind is asking that doctor if they take your insurance. However, in reality, this is one of the first questions you should ask. Most people don’t realize that they can be out of network with the doctors who are saving their lives, or even worse, the hospital in which their life was saved.

Unfortunately, you can’t assume that the physician who is caring for you is in your network. If you’ve ever spent an extended amount of time in the hospital, you know that many different doctors pop in and out of your room all day long. So it’s up to you to ask if they take your insurance; if not, be prepared to pay.

States such as California are making sure patients no longer get bills from out-of-network doctors. As of last month patients will be able to rest easy knowing that if their insurance is in network with the hospital they are in, they will not be treated by any out-of-network doctors. This law is designed to help the patient. So many people are getting hit with out-of-network doctors’ bills, and with the price of insurance already being extremely high, it’s important that we do everything we can to keep costs down.

What do you think about this law? Have you ever had this happen to you? Do they do this in in your state?

 

To learn more about choosing your insurance pick up my workbook Easy Healthcare: Choose your insurance.