I’m exaggerating, of course, but only barely. If you want to make it a little more complicated, all you’ve got to do is throw in a dash of maternity insurance.

The important thing to keep in mind when you’re dealing with maternity insurance is that most maternity-related expenses are going to have little or nothing to do with your normal benefits. The costs of pre-natal care, delivery, and post-delivery care are almost universally not covered expenses under your normal health plan. The second thing to keep in mind is that if you’re currently pregnant, you’re out of luck. If you don’t already have maternity insurance, you’re not going to be able to add it. Actually, if you don’t currently have health insurance of any sort and you’ve just gotten pregnant, then no major carrier will issue you a health insurance policy of any sort. If that’s the situation you’re in, I suggest checking out your options with state assistance.

The third thing to keep in mind is that maternity insurance on an individual policy can be very pricey, and here’s why: health insurance is all about risk. When a health insurance company issues a policy, they’re hoping that you never, ever, ever get sick or injured, because then they’ll have to pay a claim. If an insurer issues a hundred policies and only one person files a claim, then the insurance company’s expenses are kept low, and that means that their premiums can stay lower. That’s why it’s also more expensive to get health insurance when you’re older or when you have a more colorful health history — you present a bigger risk to the insurance company (in other words, there’s a greater chance that you’ll actually use your health insurance to pay a claim), so they charge you more to accept that risk.

Now, nobody is out trying to get sick or injured, and that means that every year loads of people with health insurance will pay their premiums and not file a claim. Health insurance companies love this, and you should too — fewer claims means lower expenses for insurers, and that means lower premiums. However, as a general rule, nobody buys maternity insurance unless they’re thinking about getting pregnant, and that means the chance of a claim being filed against that insurance policy is much higher than the chance of a claim being filed against a normal health insurance policy. That means that policies that include maternity insurance have significantly higher premiums than policies without it.

Now, what does maternity insurance do?

In a nutshell, maternity insurance covers the costs of pregnancy and delivery. Of course, nothing could be that simple, so let’s elaborate a little.

There are two main ways in which maternity insurance can work.

The first is the method utilized by most insurance companies: subjecting maternity benefits to a maternity deductible separate from the normal medical deductible. So, if you break your leg, your costs associated with that apply to your medical deductible, and that medical deductible is completely separate from your maternity deductible.  Aside from that, maternity benefits structured in this way are pretty normal.

The thing is, many maternity deductibles are pretty high, sometimes up in the $10,000 range, while the usual cost of a routine pregnancy only runs $4000 – $6500. It may seem pretty useless to have a maternity deductible that high, but there is a benefit to it.

As we discussed in the article on high deductible health plans, covered expenses get negotiated rates while non-covered expenses get billed the full amount. As a quick refresher: if you go to the emergency room and don’t have health insurance, you’ll get billed for the full amount of the ER visit (let’s say, just for example, that the cost is $4000). If you do have health insurance, then the insurance company will get a bill from the hospital for $4000, but chances are they won’t pay that much. Instead, they’ll pay the negotiated rate that the hospital has agreed to accept from the insurance company for the services rendered. This means that on a $4000 bill, an insurance company will probably pay $2400-$3200. Well, if you go to the hospital on a high deductible health plan and get that bill for $4000 and you haven’t yet met your deductible, you can generally negotiate to pay that negotiated rate, too. A high deductible maternity benefit works the same way — although you may never meet your deductible, since your maternity expenses are a covered expense you will be able to negotiate a lower rate than you would be able to if you had no maternity insurance at all.

The second way maternity insurance can work is the method employed by United Health Care’s individual division, Golden Rule. With Golden Rule, you get first-dollar benefits, meaning you don’t have to meet a deductible before your insurance starts paying benefits. Instead, you have a sort of bank of $4000 that you can draw on to pay maternity costs. Once you have used up that $4000, you’re responsible for the rest of your maternity costs. To get the full benefit, you’ve got to have the benefit added to your plan for twelve months — trying to use the benefits before that twelve month period is up means you’ve only got access to 50% of the bank, or $2000 worth of benefits. That twelve month waiting period does include conception, so patience is a virtue with this plan.

Depending on the carrier, your maternity benefit may also impose a waiting period for any maternity benefits of anywhere from 90 days to twelve months. Always remember, that waiting period includes conception. Also, maternity benefits cover routine expenses, but even if you don’t have maternity benefits on your health insurance policy, emergencies related to pregnancy (such as having to have an emergency c-section) may be covered. When it comes to maternity benefits, it’s vitally important to have your agent handy to help guide you through your policy.

If you’re contemplating maternity insurance, then that means you’re thinking about bringing a new life into this world – and that’s a huge decision. It’s vitally important that you get the maternity insurance policy that truly fits your personal needs, and the safest way to get the right maternity insurance is to work with an independent insurance agent. Head up to our free Georgia insurance quote page to find out how much your maternity insurance will cost and to get free, expert help in choosing the perfect policy for your new family!

How Maternity Insurance Works is a post from: Georgia Insurance Options

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The easiest way to get (and save on) full dental coverage is by bundling it with a new health insurance policy. The vast majority of people in the individual market are overpaying for their health insurance, so it’s a great idea to get your agent to do a little extra shopping and save on both products. 

If you’re looking to bundle your full dental coverage with your Georgia health insurance plan, you’re in luck: the best, and lowest priced, health insurance company in Georgia also offers very affordable full dental coverage. Humana One is an excellent insurance company in Georgia (and very reliable – I’ve personally written Humana One policies for my fiancee and her sister, so you know I must believe in them), and their full dental coverage option is very nice. Let’s take a closer look at it:

Preventative services (oral exams, routine cleanings, x-rays, sealants, and topical fluoride treatment) are paid at 100% before the deductible – in other words, they’re free. You have no out-of-pocket cost for these services – now that’s full coverage dental!

Basic services (emergency exams, pain relief, thumb sucking appliances, space maintainers, composite fillings, oral surgery, routine extractions, non-cast stainless steel crowns, and denture repairs/adjustments) and major services (root canals, periodontics, crowns, inlays, onlays, getting dentures, denture relines, and removable or fixed bridgework) are paid at 50% after the deductible. That deductible is $50 for an individual or $150 for a family. So, for example, if you have a root canal you’ll pay $50 then half of the remaining bill. In the world of full dental coverage, this is an excellent deal!

You’ll also get a 20% discount on all your orthodontist work so long as you visit a participating dentist, and most dentists are in this network. Lastly, this full coverage dental plan will pay for 50% of your teeth whitening services after your deductible and up to a $200 lifetime maximum.

Now, this is a full dental coverage plan, but there is an annual maximum benefit of $1000. This means that Humana will pay according to the guidelines above, but they’ll only pay $1000 of benefits per year. On the face, this doesn’t sound great, but full dental coverage in the private market always has caps like this. It’s about in line with what you’ll find anywhere else.

Now, you should have your agent check up on your health insurance plan once in a while to make sure that you’re still getting the best coverage at the best rates. The market shifts constantly, and there’s no harm and no cost to have your agent make sure that you’re still ahead of the game. If you’ve recently had your agent do this and you’re happy with your health insurance, but still want full dental coverage, then you might want to look into standalone full dental coverage.

If this is the route you want to go, then I recommend going with one of AHCP’s full dental coverage options. Option one is the AHCP Saver Dental, which has a $1000/year maximum, a $25 deductible, covers 80% of preventative work, 40% of basic work, and 20% of major work. As you can see, the loss of coverage when compared to the Humana plan is huge, especially when you consider that the two plans are almost the same price.

Option two is the AHCP Comprehensive Dental, which is more of a full dental coverage plan. Here, we have a $1500/year maximum, a $50 deductible, coverage at 100% for preventative services, 80% for basic services, and 50% for major services. This is a much more comprehensive full dental coverage option, and is only very slightly more expensive than the Humana full dental coverage.

The one thing that really pushes the AHCP Comprehensive Dental plan above and beyond is the fact that, so long as you had prior dental coverage, there’s no waiting period for any services. The Humana full coverage dental plan has a six month waiting period for basic services and a twelve month wait for major services. The AHCP Saver Dental has a flat twelve-month waiting period for all services. But, if you’ve just left a job with full dental coverage and have proof of that coverage, then the AHCP Comprehensive Dental plan will kick in immediately with no waiting periods whatsoever.

That, in a nutshell, is what full dental coverage looks like in the private market. As with any insurance plan, I strongly recommend that you talk to your personal insurance agent to help figure out what plan is best for you. Now that you know what the market looks like for individual full dental coverage, why not get a free full dental coverage quote and see how much you could be saving on your insurance?

Full Dental Coverage in Georgia is a post from: Georgia Insurance Options

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When you buy a health insurance policy for yourself or your family, you’re buying protection that will last for the full duration of your policy. Usually, that means that you’re signing a contract that agrees to one year of health insurance coverage (that coverage will automatically renew every year unless you tell your agent you want it to do otherwise). But sometimes, you don’t need a full year of coverage. Perhaps you’ve just graduated from college and you just need health insurance for a couple of months until you get a job with benefits. Maybe you’ve run into the same problem more and more of us are facing in this economic downturn: employee volume reductions have left you temporarily jobless, and all of a sudden you – not to mention your spouse and children – are without the health insurance benefits you had been counting on from your employer. You’re out there looking for a new job with new benefits, but what can you do in the meantime? In a bottomed-out economy when you’re already without your normal income, the last thing you need is for an unexpected health care emergency to wipe out your savings.

In a situation like this, I highly recommend short-term medical insurance. These policies can be absolute lifesavers for people who find themselves unexpectedly and temporarily without health insurance.

For often shockingly low prices, you can get the same benefits of a full plan for a limited period of time. Short-term medical insurance is just as simple as that. Standard, full benefits, full coverage, low price, limited duration. Does it get any easier than that?

Short term medical insurance is designed to cover a gap in coverage, and by filling that gap it provides you with a hidden benefit that’s often overlooked. If you have employer benefits, lose your job and lose those benefits, but wait for three or four months to buy an individual health insurance policy, then you’ve had what insurance companies call a “lapse in coverage.” This opens you back up to the dreaded “pre-existing condition” rules that insurers use to deny claims every day. But, if you fill that gap with a short-term medical plan, you can prove that you’ve had continuous coverage back to when your first job’s benefits began. That means that, by law, those conditions that might otherwise be called pre-existing cannot be excluded from coverage when your new benefits begin. Let’s use an example.

Say that you started a job at company A. While working there, and while covered by company A’s group health plan, you developed tendinitis in your wrist. Since that condition didn’t develop until after you were covered, company A’s group health insurer can’t deny any claims under a pre-existing clause. Unfortunately, company A has to lay you off and you realize that COBRA is just too expensive (and we have an article on COBRA elsewhere on this website for your reading pleasure!), so you suddenly find yourself without health insurance. Three months pass, and you either take a job with company B or decide to buy an individual family plan. Well, since you’ve had a gap in coverage longer than sixty-three days, any claims you make for that tendinitis may be denied as a pre-existing condition – if that new insurance policy didn’t just include a rider to exclude that condition from coverage from the beginning!

However, if you had filled that gap with short-term medical insurance, you would have had continuous coverage for the duration of your condition. That means that that tendinitis cannot be considered a pre-existing condition any longer – since you’ve been insured for it with no gap in coverage, it can’t be said that it existed before you had insurance! But when you have that lapse in coverage between your two group policies, you open yourself up to all sorts of exclusions and underwriting requirements that are easily avoidable. Add that on to the problems of going without health insurance in the first place, especially during a period in your life when you’re between jobs or fresh out of college, and you can see why going without short-term medical insurance just isn’t a wise decision to make.

Filling the gap between employer benefits or between graduation and employment is absolutely vital, and short-term medical insurance is the best, simplest, most effective way to do that. Short-term medical insurance is also remarkably affordable – to find out just how much short-term medical insurance would be for you, head over to our free Georgia insurance quote page and get your personalized value proposal today!

Short Term Medical Insurance is a post from: Georgia Insurance Options

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