Posted on Thursday, January 29, 2015

Happy 26th Birthday….Now What?

Choosing health insurance can be confusing no matter how old you are. But, how you answer a few simple questions will help make choosing a health insurance plan easier.

Take Lauren for example. She never had to think about healthcare in her life. She could take for granted that her parents would make the decision and hand her a new card to keep with her.

With her 26th birthday upon her, however, she can no longer stay on her parents’ health insurance policy. On top of that, she’s experiencing a lot of changes in her life: finishing a graduate degree with multiple job offers and moving away from home for the first time. Lauren has decided to follow her heart rather than a paycheck and accepted a job with a new charity in Washington DC that doesn’t offer health insurance.

With all this on her mind, Lauren needs to purchase a health insurance plan on her own for the very first time. Where does she start? What questions should she ask herself?

What are my health needs?

Lauren is extremely healthy and with the occasional seasonal allergy, she has barely been sick a day in her life. She has no pre-existing conditions and her family history is generally a very healthy one. Lauren doesn’t require a health plan with “all the bells in whistles.”

What’s my financial status?

Lauren is graduating with student debt, moving to a high-rent area, and working for a new organization where health benefits are not an option. Given her health and financial status, spending a large sum of money on health insurance is not in her list of priorities.

What are my future health plans?

Lauren is single with no plans of starting a family. She’s also prepared to pay for her yearly check-up out of her own pocket.

What should Lauren do?

With Obamacare, she can purchase what’s called “catastrophic health insurance.” This plan is meant for people under the age of 30 who don’t require high levels of medical care. This will cover Lauren for the “what-if” situations we discussed with Kelley and Matt’s story. If anything significant were to happen, Lauren would not be left with a pile of medical bills. So, while Lauren shouldn’t stay on a catastrophic plan for than a year or two, it’s a viable option while she gets her career and new life in Washington underway.

Are you a Lauren? If so, let us know! What are your concerns about healthcare as you start out?

I hope this helps you spin your healthcare your way.

Posted on Wednesday, January 28, 2015

3 Things to Make Picking Health Insurance Easy

As you try to determine which health insurance plan works best for you and your family, you need to decide:

How healthy is my family?
Do I love my doctor?
Would I rather pay less now and possibly more later?

These are the questions I asked my friend, Linda who was trying to decide which insurance plan to pick for her family. Linda is a very busy mom who is constantly balancing the demands of her job and her family. She has 2 young children and both she and her husband work. Linda has high blood pressure and her husband is diabetic. Linda and her husband struggle to eat healthy and almost never have time to exercise.

To Linda, the health plan choices seemed daunting. Too many choices, no information.

So we asked our 3 questions:

1. How healthy is my family?

In order to easily understand Linda’s family’s health issues, we started by completing her Medical Life list (which you can get for FREE in our ebook What To Do First when you sign up for myhealthspin.com blog).

Once Linda had all her health information at her fingertips, we knew that all the members of her family had some health issues so insurance coverage was important.

Next, we asked:

2. Do I love my doctor?

Linda and her husband were often too busy to go to the doctor. If anyone in the family got sick, they relied on Urgent Care or a local clinic. Having access to an internist and a pediatrician would make Linda’s life easier since her family could get better care.

Whether you have a doctor you love is important to know because when you pick an insurance plan – each plan will have a list of doctors that are “in network.” The cost of the doctor’s visit will be less if you pick one who is in the network of providers for the insurance plan. Since Linda’s family did not have a regular doctor, she could pick any of the plans available that had a doctor that was located nearby.

Lastly, we looked at Linda’s budget and asked:

3. Would I rather pay less now or more later?

As we looked at the insurance plans she could choose from, some cost more per month and some cost less. But of course, the plans that had a lower premium, also covered less. We decided that the middle plan was the best option. It cost a little more per month but Linda’s out-of-pocket cost would be less over the year.

By asking these 3 simple questions, Linda picked her health plan and had confidence she made the right choice.

Stay tuned for my easy information about how to choose insurance in our upcoming book, Choose Your Health Insurance.

I hope this post helps you Spin Your Healthcare Your Way!

Posted on Friday, January 16, 2015

Helpful Health Care Links: January 16, 2015

Our helpful health care links focus primarily on Obamacare and privacy news — Johnson and Johnson working with Yale to make clinical trial data available to outside researchers and the head of the California Obamacare exchange warning residents about potential penalties. We also include an article from The Wall Street Journal about a new dieting device for your stomach. All are worth your time. And, as always, if you ever come across a healthcare story that you think merits more attention, please send it our way!

Johnson & Johnson Will Make Clinical Data Available to Outside Researchers

Healthcare giant, Johnson & Johnson has agreed to make detailed clinical trial data on its medical devices and diagnostic tests available to outside researchers through a collaboration with Yale University.

Obamacare ‘Fine’ Not Dandy, Says California Exchange Boss

The head of California’s Obamacare exchange warns California residents about increased fines under Obamacare this year for not having health insurance.

Still Waiting For Strong Privacy Laws

President Obama this week proposed privacy laws that could give Americans greater control over their personal information.

U.S. Healthcare Executives Say Obamacare Is Not Going Anywhere

U.S. healthcare executives say Obamacare is likely here to stay, despite repeated calls from Republican lawmakers for repeal of the 2010 law aimed at providing health coverage for millions of uninsured Americans.

FDA Clears ‘Pacemaker For The Stomach’

Federal regulators approved a novel dieting device that acts like a pacemaker for the stomach by manipulating the nerve pathway that makes people feel hungry or full.

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