Family Health Insurance: A Comprehensive Guide
Are you thinking about investing in family health insurance this summer? You’re in great company. Research shows that more than 91% of Americans had health insurance for part or all of 2020. Family health plans are especially popular because they’re typically more cost-efficient than individual plans. They’re also convenient, as families don’t have to interact with multiple insurers and policies. How do you choose the right family insurance policy? Let’s explore the best option for protecting yourself and your loved ones. Why Family Health Insurance? Family health insurance provides your loved ones with access to top-quality care at an affordable price. Without family health insurance, major medical events could lead to severe financial issues, as the costs of medications and medical treatments can accumulate rapidly. A doctor’s visit may cost anywhere from $100 to $300. An emergency room visit may cost more than $2,000. Emergency visits cost the US more than $76 billion in 2017. Urgent care, community clinic, and telehealth services are also available but can still be costly without health insurance. This is why a family policy is invaluable. A family health plan will let you cover your dependents with a single policy. This is true whether you have only two dependents or eight dependents. The policy will cover your health care expenses if anyone in the family falls ill. Perhaps your family has more than four people. Your insurance plan will likely be costlier overall. The benefit is that you might pay less money per person. Family Health Insurance Policies Various health insurance plan options are available thanks to the US’s Affordable Care Act, also called Obamacare. Four levels of health care coverage are available with these plans. A bronze plan is the cheapest policy. Prepare to pay lofty out-of-pocket (OOP) expenses for coinsurance, copays, and deductibles, though. Coinsurance is where you pay a certain percentage of your health care costs, and your insurer covers the rest. This typically applies after you’ve met your deductible. The deductible is the amount of money you must pay before your health insurer will start covering some or all of your healthcare costs. Your copays are fixed amounts you must pay for services covered by your health insurance plan. Silver and gold plans are more expensive but require lower OOP costs. A platinum policy will cost you the most money but offers the most coverage. A bronze plan may pay for about 60% of your healthcare costs. You’ll cover the rest. A silver, gold, and platinum plan might cover around 70%, 80%, and 90%, respectively. Low-premium, high-deductible plans might be ideal for families that don’t plan to use many health services, as these plans will cost them less per month. High-premium plans with low deductibles may make more sense for families who use medical care extensively, as this will help them minimize their OOP costs. Choose a policy offering preventative health care coverage. This will help you keep your loved ones healthy so you can lower your medical costs long-term. Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) If you choose a bronze plan with a deductible of at least $2,500 a year, you must pay this amount before your insurance covers expenses. Setting up a Health Savings Account (HSA) can make this easier. An HSA allows you to set aside tax-free funds for medical expenses, including coinsurance, copays, and deductibles. However, you cannot use HSA funds for health insurance premiums, which are your monthly payments for coverage. You can save up to $6,550 annually in an HSA, and unused funds roll over to future years, providing a valuable financial resource for managing healthcare costs. You may save as much as $6,550 a year in an HSA. These funds may roll over to future years if you don’t spend it all. An HSA is different from a flexible spending account (FSA). An FSA is another account you can put funds into to pay for some OOP medical care costs. FSAs are employer-owned versus individual-owned like HSAs, though. Another difference between HSAs and FSAs is that FSAs are less flexible. An FSA also doesn’t allow withdrawals. Your HSA will allow you to withdraw money from it as long as you pay the penalty for this. Yet another benefit of HSAs is that they allow funds to be rolled over as mentioned earlier. You cannot roll over FSA contributions to the next year. Finding a Family Health Insurance Policy Searching for the right family health plan can be overwhelming. A medical insurance broker can guide you through this process. A reputable broker can give you detailed information about multiple aspects of family medical care insurance plans in your state. They can also give you specialized quotes for different policies. That’s because they have partnerships with several popular insurance carriers. Ready to start your search for a family health policy? Contact a well-rated broker to review your family’s medical insurance needs. The broker’s experts can give you detailed quotes and information about all of your family health policy options. They’ll then help you contact different health insurers and set up a plan with the most appropriate one for your needs. How We Can Help With Insurance A family health plan can help you cover medical bills for yourself and your family. Family plans may save you money compared with individual plans. They might also save you time since you won’t have to handle multiple insurers and policies. Custom Health Plans can help you choose an affordable medical insurance plan for your family. We’re a leading family health insurance broker in Texas. Contact us to learn more about our services, and get a quote today!
