I have never had to go to the hospital. I am not at high risk of anything. I hardly really use my health insurance. It seems like it is likely just a waste of $/mo to keep my current health insurance, until my new insurance kicks in in days.
What do you think?
What if you are in an automobile accident with an uninsured motorist in the meantime? You could be facing tens of thousands of dollars in hospital bills. If you become disabled as a result, then you won’t have a job either. Are you willing to take that chance?
The alternative is to be “self-insured” which means having enough money in the bank to cover such a contingency. At your age, you should have AT LEAST a to month emergency fund (i.e., savings equal to at least to months of salary). If you do not have such an emergency fund then you are living dangerously.
If you can’t self-insure, then you would do better to have a high deductible health insurance plan (e.g., $) rather than none at all. Insurance is a “waste of money” until you need it and then it is a life-saver.
Don’t be penny-wise and pound foolish!
Listen to James T. He’s got some great advice there. I can speak from experience in this situation. My husband (at the time) changed jobs and we decided not to get the Cobra coverage. We were both healthy and rarely used our insurance except for the occasional flu. So, we didn’t pay the Cobra premium. Out of the blue, a month later, I felt extraordinary pain in my lower left back. It became even more painful and I had to go to the emergency room. It turned out to be a kidney stone that had no chance of passing due to a crimped portion of the tube that it had to pass through. That would require surgery. I decided to hold off on surgery and they put a stent in to keep me out of pain until I was ready for the surgery. Long story short, my bill for the emergency visit was over $,! I was able to be retroactively added to Cobra due to my ex-husband’s company’s failure to properly send out its Cobra notices (another long story). As a result, I submitted the $, bill to them.
Interesting side note here…the hospital charged me $, but when presented with insurance, they accepted the “contracted rate” and settled the bill for approximately $,!!
If they know you don’t have insurance, they will require you to pay the full amount and they don’t want to work with you much either!
If you can afford something like that, go for it. Here’s another option (I think James mentioned this as well): look online for a higher deductible individual insurance plan that is just for hospital care. If you don’t think you need doctor’s visits, just get something that will cover you in the case of an emergency.
Go to www.ehealthinsurance.com and input your information. See if you can find an individual policy that will cover what you want at a lower cost. This is where I send the spouses of employees when they decide not to cover a family member on our company plan because of the cost.
Good luck!
if you have no existing conditions and are not on any meds, no problem. I have been without insurance a couple of times between jobs in the past and WAS on medication and when I started a new job, no claims were ever denied and the insurance paid for all my existing meds
Completely unwise to let your insurance lapse.
If there is no lapse in insurance there is no pre-existing clause. A pre-existing clause can be anywhere from mon-years. An undiagnosed birthdefect could be considered a preexisting condition.
if that $ could be put to good use, i’d probably let it ride for a few months. just don’t do anything overtly dangerous.
Answers
Favorite Answer
What if you are in an automobile accident with an uninsured motorist in the meantime? You could be facing tens of thousands of dollars in hospital bills. If you become disabled as a result, then you won’t have a job either. Are you willing to take that chance?
The alternative is to be “self-insured” which means having enough money in the bank to cover such a contingency. At your age, you should have AT LEAST a to month emergency fund (i.e., savings equal to at least to months of salary). If you do not have such an emergency fund then you are living dangerously.
If you can’t self-insure, then you would do better to have a high deductible health insurance plan (e.g., $) rather than none at all. Insurance is a “waste of money” until you need it and then it is a life-saver.
Don’t be penny-wise and pound foolish!
Source(s): My wife is a Ceritifed Financial Planner and I’ve learned some things about good money management from her.
Listen to James T. He’s got some great advice there. I can speak from experience in this situation. My husband (at the time) changed jobs and we decided not to get the Cobra coverage. We were both healthy and rarely used our insurance except for the occasional flu. So, we didn’t pay the Cobra premium. Out of the blue, a month later, I felt extraordinary pain in my lower left back. It became even more painful and I had to go to the emergency room. It turned out to be a kidney stone that had no chance of passing due to a crimped portion of the tube that it had to pass through. That would require surgery. I decided to hold off on surgery and they put a stent in to keep me out of pain until I was ready for the surgery. Long story short, my bill for the emergency visit was over $,! I was able to be retroactively added to Cobra due to my ex-husband’s company’s failure to properly send out its Cobra notices (another long story). As a result, I submitted the $, bill to them.
Interesting side note here…the hospital charged me $, but when presented with insurance, they accepted the “contracted rate” and settled the bill for approximately $,!!
If they know you don’t have insurance, they will require you to pay the full amount and they don’t want to work with you much either!
If you can afford something like that, go for it. Here’s another option (I think James mentioned this as well): look online for a higher deductible individual insurance plan that is just for hospital care. If you don’t think you need doctor’s visits, just get something that will cover you in the case of an emergency.
Go to www.ehealthinsurance.com and input your information. See if you can find an individual policy that will cover what you want at a lower cost. This is where I send the spouses of employees when they decide not to cover a family member on our company plan because of the cost.
Good luck!
Source(s): HR/Benefits Specialist
Personal experience!!!!
if you have no existing conditions and are not on any meds, no problem. I have been without insurance a couple of times between jobs in the past and WAS on medication and when I started a new job, no claims were ever denied and the insurance paid for all my existing meds
Completely unwise to let your insurance lapse.
If there is no lapse in insurance there is no pre-existing clause. A pre-existing clause can be anywhere from mon-years. An undiagnosed birthdefect could be considered a preexisting condition.
if that $ could be put to good use, i’d probably let it ride for a few months. just don’t do anything overtly dangerous.