Insurance companies offer short term health insurance plans for people who are temporarily between permanent health plans. Whether you’re between jobs, on strike or you have recently graduated from college, you might need to get short term health insurance to tide you over for a little while. Generally, these insurance policies last between one and 12 months, although sometimes companies limit the time to six months. If your short term insurance expires, but you still need health coverage, then you should know in advance that you can’t renew your short term policy. In order to remain covered, you have to reapply and go through the entire process again. For this reason, insurance agents don’t recommend getting a short term plan in place of regular coverage.
Short term insurance covers many of the same services as permanent insurance, depending on your policy. Most short term policies work as traditional indemnity plans instead of managed care plans. With an indemnity plan, you can make an appointment with almost any medical provider, and you pay a fee for that service. You can also extend short term insurance to cover your immediate family members. Short term insurance doesn’t cover pre-existing conditions, and usually doesn’t cover check-ups or preventative care, dental care or optical care. It does cover more serious needs, such as prescription drugs, emergency medicine, hospital and intensive care, ambulances and x-rays, depending on the policy.
The Internet provides a wealth of short term insurance options and quotes. Take some time to shop around and search a variety of health insurance quotes from different services and different companies. You can find health insurance quotes for free, and at many companies’ Web sites, you can find free information about short term health insurance, as well.
For example, the online business Health Insure at www.healthinsure.com provides not only free quotes, but lots of reviews, summaries and buying guides for short term insurance, as well as many other types of insurance. Health Insure also offers links to more information and recommendations based on its employees’ informed opinions. In general, they remind consumers that every insurance carrier has strengths and weaknesses, and you should look around to see which type of insurance policy best fits your needs.
Even though many Web sites will give you multiple quotes, you should still always shop around at more than one site. Especially in the beginning, looking at another Web site or two will double or triple your options. You might want to take a look at www.4freequotes.com, which offers multiple quotes within minutes. In addition to health insurance, they also provide varieties of auto, home and life insurance, as do most companies. Another place that could offer you a great deal is www.healthinsurance.com, which also provides some quick study information on health insurance, and personalized support for your questions.
The cost of any short term insurance policy will depend on the deductible you choose. Your monthly premium could vary between $25 and $100 based on this variable, so you should try to get as high a deductible that you feel comfortable with. Most short term policies also require a co-insurance of at least 20%, meaning that you pay 20% of the bill. The insurance company will also amend your out-of-pocket expenses with a reasonable ceiling on these costs.
By Lisa Zyga