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Limited Benefit Health Insurance – Is It A Good Deal?
Posted by | Posted in Health Insurance | Posted on 23-08-2009
These days, everyone is looking for ways to save money. Some have found that buying cheap health insurance is one way to go. And while this has its upside, you should be careful, because you may end up with a health crisis.
For many folks in Dallas, Houston or throughout Texas with no health insurance, a policy known as “Limited Benefit” sounds like an appealing choice. Premiums are as low as $10 a week. But there‘s a big catch: these policies pay as little as $1,000 a year or $10,000 for a lifetime – so little that some health insurance experts question whether they really amounts to health insurance at all.
Even insurance industry executives and agents are highly skeptical of such plans. At one insurance-company meeting last year, a roomful of agents burst into laughter when an executive described a Limited Benefit plan. But plan defenders say the simple act of giving low-income workers an insurance card can encourage them to seek routine preventive care. They contend that some measure of health coverage, however small, is better than none.
Currently, Limited Benefit policies are among the fastest-growing health insurance offerings for temporary and hourly workers. Sold by half a dozen insurance companies, they cover an estimated 750,000 employees and family members. Wal-Mart Stores Inc., McDonald’s Corp. and Lowe’s Cos. are among major companies making them available to their employees. For the nearly 47 million uninsured people in the United States today, having Limited Benefit health insurance would be better than having no coverage at all.
Limited Benefit plans place severe financial caps on benefits such as inpatient care, hospital room and board and other critical services. One of the bigger selling points for Limited Benefit plans, however, is that they often cover at least part of the insured’s everyday medical expenses. Still, even with respect to every day care, the policies have restrictions such as waiting periods for “wellness checks” and exclusions for the treatment of pre-existing conditions. Limited Benefit plans typically also have deductibles that policyholders must pay each year before benefits kick in.
Some insurance companies have tried offering low-cost policies that cover “catastrophic” health costs. But industry officials say low-income employees haven’t shown much interest because such plans require high deductibles – perhaps a couple of thousand dollars – before coverage kicks in. Low-wage workers are more interested in something that covers basic expenses.
While many employers who sponsor Limited Benefit health plans for their employees reluctantly concede that the plans offer little to no help with a serious illness, the employers and their insurance agents say that they make sure workers understand what this particular insurance will and will not do.
Enrollment in Limited Benefit health plans has grown about 20% in each of the past few years. Employers make them available mostly to hourly workers, either full- or part-time, and collect the premiums through payroll deduction. Many companies in the service sector typically find that 10% to 30% of eligible workers elect to purchase the Limited Benefit coverage.
Limited benefit plans may have their place in today’s health insurance market, but it’s important that consumers know exactly what they’re getting up front. So if you’re looking for an affordable health plan that offers catastrophic coverage, without a high deductible, you should take a look at the revolutionary, comprehensive individual health insurance solutions created by companies specifically for young, healthy individuals.
Watch the video related to health insurance
Some therapists and patients contend that insurance companies have been routinely denying coverage for sexual assault victims requesting long-term mental health services. Stories of how victims of sexual assault can get tangled in the health insurance system have been one result of the Huffington Post Investigative Fund’s citizen journalism project, which is calling on readers to provide information and anecdotes about the inner workings of the insurance industry.
Help answer the question about health insurance
I have private health insurance and insurance from work?I have private health insurance from blue cross blue shield, I also get blue cross blue-shield from the work I do for the state. If I was to use the insurance from my work would it be a conflict with the insurance I privately have? I was told that they would cancel each other out and I would lose my private insurance. Is this true??? I don't really want to lose my private insurance for health and security reasons but I also don't want to keep paying more if i don't have to in the long run.
I say that's fine… If that is the decision made by the individual… not forced on them by a government bureaucracy looking out for what they think is the "greater good."
Health care is available to anyone who asks for it, people that don't pay now will not pay under obama care. but under obamacare the government can always raise taxes to compensate for any losses created by people that don't pay, i.e welfare, and illegal immigrants. it is the same now only insurance make up the loss, under Obamacare taxes will make up the loss.
Says a lot about those owners imo.
so true,insurance companys suck ass
My Dr. and I just discusses this last week. Not all people who go through that are going through it due to being lazy. I have limited things i can do as of exercise as i was a passenger in a car accident that almost broke my neck. My feet are bad and i can't walk much or use a tread mill.
Dr. talked about this due to trying to help me lower my blood pressure, diabetes, high cholestrol, ect.
I will review all the info here and all the sites you listed and talk to my Dr. again. Thank you Ziggy for your information.
should i take a viagra!!! lol (sorry for bad spelling)
This guy is funny I smoke pot and This guy is potatstic. My friends call me potking. I smoke pot. I like jamie kilstein . pot.
If it does not sound like it, you are not reading enough of the answers. None of the bills proposed so far will result in government takeover of healthcare or crowd out private insurance unless they are inefficient.
Wow, I remember when club owners told me I couldn’t give this guy open mic time in Chicago.
There is so much I desperately want to warn people about the nightmare of Socialized medicine. I know all about it. I'm living the nightmare here in Europe.
The most important things to consider are this:
1) Think your doctor is apathetic and callous now? Ha!! Just wait until medicine is Socialized. He'll probably practice his golf putting while you're still in the examination room. Doctors under Socialized medicine can't care less.
2) Only 15% of Americans don't have adequate or any health insurance. The majority of them can afford it. They choose not to. Look at how many "poor" people have cable tv, drink coffee at Starbucks, have designer clothing, women with expensive hairdos and guys dressed in Fubu and gold chains. It's all a matter of priorities.
3) In all countries with Socialized medicine, you do not get a real appointment. You sit like a chump in a crowded, dirty waiting room with dozens of other hapless souls. So now, besides just paying for Loquitia and her six out-of-wedlock kids, you are forced to sit with the ill-mannered, raucous little brats.
Sound like fun?
Here is an analogy:
When I was young, we belonged to a nice country club with a pool and tennis courts. Membership was limited to 300 families, so it would not get too crowded. Summers were idyllic. We would often go there at 7am for swim lessons, and stay till 10pm, having eaten lunch there, and been joined by our dad who would bring food for us to grill, just as many other families did. It was a real club in the sense that everyone knew each other. Going to the club was the absolute core of our summers.
Then, it got sold to the Park District. They filled in the deep end of the pool so they wouldn't have to worry so much about anyone drowning. The pool was ridiculously crowded, noisy, and unpleasant. Mothers would just drop their kids off and leave. So many unsupervised children made it a nightmare. The place was dirty, and you could never swim laps because it was overrun by so many people.
Now you understand what will happen if private medical care is replaced by Socialized medicine.
Popular reporter John Stossel pointed out that Americans go to the doctor much more often than any other people on the planet, and take way, way more prescription drugs. We are also the fattest country on earth, and Socialized medicine would just be an excuse for people to demand fast, easy cures for their "obesity disease".
So, what do you want? A nice country club, or the nightmare of a dirty, over-crowded public pool?
I love how he says sh*t that needs to be said within his comedy. I’ve had this conversation with other people countless times.