Health insurance’s main aim is to take care of medical expenses. Most governments around the world provide this type of insurance through government institutions such as a National Health Insurance Fund. This is not only limited to government employees but to other citizens as well. Private companies or businesses also contract the services of insurance companies to provide cover for their employees.
Government schemes
Government schemes such as a National Health Insurance Fund, mostly found in African countries, draws membership from government employees and individuals not in government employment. Those in government employment pay their reasonable monthly contributions through check-off system where their contributions are deducted in advance before they receive their monthly payments. Individual private members have a duty to remit their monthly contributions or risk being either deregistered or the agency failing to settle any claims in the event of sickness or death. This scenario creates a huge fund and most of such government schemes have invested large sums of money in real estate, thereby assured of enough monthly incomes to serve their members better. With prudent management and focused expansion plans, government employees can benefit a great deal from such arrangements.
It is only health-related issues that are covered by such schemes. These will not include outpatient services as these are in most cases either free or at minimal charge. In-patients in the wards are adequately covered, including other specific services such as X-rays, minor theatre operations and mother-child health issues.
Private Employee Health Insurance
Private companies or businesses contract insurance companies to provide their employees with insurance cover that suits their needs at the work place. This is in most cases standard and for those employees who feel that they need additional cover, they are at liberty to enter into their own contracts with the insurance companies for that extra cover they take.
The types of insurance that private companies or businesses take out for their employees include;
(a) Workers’ Compensation Insurance. If you engage the services of employees in your business, you will need to take out this insurance to provide them with cover in the event that any of them sustain work-related injuries. In this case, the insurance company assumes all workers’ compensation insurance risks. A good number of governments around the world have actually made this a mandatory requisite before commencement of business operations.
(b) Life Insurance. This is in most cases taken out by large multi-national or national organizations. In most cases, such organizations are involved in types of work considered risky to their lives. This is also important for a small business that is solely owned or that where there is a partner. If you own the business by yourself, it occurs that you make all decisions concerning the business. In the event that you die, the business is bound to suffer heavy loses. You can safely guard against this by taking out life insurance so that in the event of your death, the insurance company will compensate the business for you losing you. If you have a partner and you both run the business under some written agreement, the business will in the same way suffer upon the death of either of you. This can be taken care of by taking out life insurance.
(a) Liability Insurance. This is meant to provide cover for any third parties who may sustain injuries within your premises. Third party claims, where many are involved, have the potential to completely run down a business under heavy debts.
(b) Employment Liability Insurance. The need for this kind of insurance is growing by the day as countries enact laws to safeguard against wrongful termination of employee’ services and sexual harassment litigation. These have not been covered in the major insurance policy covers and a number of insurance companies are now formulating policies to adequately cover them.
(c) Medicare Insurance. Several insurance companies have come up with this cover to specifically cater for outpatient medical expenses. If your business has employees, you can contract a health care provider to take care of their health needs with this policy.
If you are an employee who has an insurance cover offered by your employer, go through your policy and get to understand what is actually covered. You may wish to take up another policy that you think is of a necessity.
As with other types of insurance, health insurance is that business that takes upon itself all or some of your health risks on payment of an agreed premium of which you should not expect any refund. Health insurance companies have come up with different packages that suit different health issues.
Many accusations have been labeled against insurance companies that advertise to offer cheap and affordable health insurance but hide other charges in the small prints. If there are no hidden charges, then the premiums may be low with poor service. However, some reputable insurance companies indeed charge low premiums and offer satisfactory service when that need arises. What you need to do is to search widely for a company that has reputation and look at the quotes across the board.
While searching for a reputable company offering cheap health insurance, do make an effort to check the difference between the cheap quote and what you may consider an expensive quote. You may be surprised to find out that the difference is just a hundred or two dollars. This boils down to how the insurance companies peg their rates. Some will go for a large number of clients, meaning they will have to contend with many claims and thus charge higher premium while others may go for fewer clients with lower charges but strict screening before they issue you with a policy document.
You may ask yourself why the insurance quotes are high, forcing many people to look for the cheap alternatives. This can be attributed to a number of factors;
(a) Increased consumer demand. As more people become aware of the importance of health insurance, more of them opt to take out a policy and in most cases, they go for the cheap ones so that at least have a cover rather than stay without any.
(b) New treatment methods. New intense treatment methods are developed and this raise the cost of treatment, forcing insurance companies to raise their quotes.
(c) Diagnostic testing. More intensive diagnostic testing and procedures have come up, raising healthcare charges. It has to be noted that the aging population particularly in the developed world continue to require intensive care for a long period and this definitely leads to higher charges for provision of such care. Insurance companies find themselves with no alternative but to raise their quotes.
(d) Lifestyle. Use of risky substances such as excessive alcohol, smoking and undesirable drugs increase health risks and related diseases, making treatment hard and expensive and thus having insurance companies charging higher premiums.
Some insurance companies have formulated policies that do not offer full coverage with the aim of offering low premium quotes. These have actually attracted many clients who would otherwise not afford to foot full medical bills on their own. Such policies include;
(a) Deductible. This is the amount of money that you must pay before your insurance company pays its share. A fixed sum is in most cases set and as you continue to visit your doctor and reach that sum, your insurer will start paying extra charges from that point.
(b) Co-insurance. This in most cases applies when you get a particular medical service. You pay out of your pocket a percentage of the total cost and your insurer pays the rest.
Cheap Health Insurance is available, what you need to do is to thoroughly search for a company that offers cheap rates that suit your need.
Insurance in general is one of the most neglected aspects of businesses, especially small businesses. As with a big business, a small business too needs to have some level of insurance to cushion it against frivolous claims. A small business particularly needs insurance perhaps the most as claims may overwhelm it forcing it to close down. Read the rest of this entry »