Tips for Choosing Health Insurance
If you practice yoga and drink green tea on a daily basis and plus have no history of severe medical conditions, you might not need critical illness insurance. But also keep in mind Canada’s health system does not cover dental care and with those pollution levels rising and food being sprinkled with health hazardous chemicals, who knows?
Surely at least your teeth will become rotten and in need proper medical treatment. The point being made is: no one knows anything and this is exactly why you should at least consider purchasing a health insurance plan. And If you are already in the process of choosing, here are a couple of useful tips:
1. Take Out The Calculator
Health insurance plans consist of 3 important things: deductible, co-pay and out-of-pocket. This is why you shouldn’t only take in mind the monthly fee, but also all of these factors in an insurance plan. The deductible is the amount you have to pay for medical care before the insurance activates. Co-pay or co-insurance is the percentage which you’ll pay for the necessary medical treatment gotten after the deductible.
Insurance plans don’t cover these two, but they do cover everything else which is extremely more than the deductible and co-pay combined together. These costs covered solely by the insurance plan are called out-of-pocket and cover a minimum of 2 million dollars on an annual basis. So purchasing insurance for a lower monthly price won’t do you any good if the deductible and co-pays are high.
2. Be Realistic About Your Health
The best health plan for you depends on your lifestyle, medical history, family tree and the type of work you do. If you are stuck on the decision for a health insurance plan, simply look at your family tree.
Each insurance plan offers coverage for different health conditions. It’s a difficult subject to talk about, but identifying your unhealthy habits, the threats (physical & mental) which you are faced with at work and the medical conditions in your gene pool or family tree will help you in finding the best health plan. It is better to clear things up now, rather than choosing a health plan that won’t prove to be beneficial for your health in the future.
There are 4 main types of health insurance in Canada: critical illness insurance, health & dental, long term care and disability insurance.
3. Ask Millions of Questions
Choosing the right insurance plan is important. If you make the wrong decision, bad health insurance can leave you scammed and without enough money for health coverage. This is why, when choosing a health insurance provider one must dive deep into their offers. When inspecting the insurance plan keep in mind these couple of things:
- Which prescription drugs are covered
- Which medical treatments are covered
- Other benefits such as lab tests, hospitalization, emergency situations, rehabilitation, dental and vision care, maternity and newborn care etc.
- Do you have to stay in the network of medical providers to get your treatments covered?
Contacting the companies through email and phone might not be enough as person-in-person communication always reveals much more about the reality of a company’s professionalism and dedication. When you visit them, ask every important question you can think of. If the company is legit then each of your concerns will be understood by the insurance experts and solved with adequate suggestions and advice.
