One great thing about obamacare is that we all have access to lower cost health insurance. Well, my insurance is now more expensive, but I’m sure yours is lower. Right?
The big problem I see is that even if premiums went down for some people, the deductibles have gone up. The ACA reduced the cap on high deductibles to $6,500, but more people who used to have low deductible insurance now have high deductibles. So if someone picks a health insurance plan with the lowest premium that they could afford to pay now, THEY will still have to pay the first $6,500 of their medical treatment.
Luckily there are a couple of Innovative ways for you to take the sting out of the high deductibles. These aren’t perfect fixes, but they can help you avoid having to come out of pocket to meet the deductible in many cases.
Life Insurance with “Accelerated Living Benefits”
There are some newer policies that include Accelerated Living Benefit Riders for Critical and Chronic Illness. Accelerated Living Benefit is just a fancy way of saying that the policy has a rider that will pay a benefit while you are still alive.
Coverage varies by carrier, but Critical Illness generally includes the following: Heart Attack, Cancer, ALS, Kidney Failure, or Major Organ Transplant. I don’t know about you, but these cover my biggest concerns regarding my health and are the primary reason I have health insurance.
Chronic Illness means that the insured cannot perform 2 out of the 6 “Activities of Daily Living” without substantial assistance from another person or being severely cognitively impaired. The activities of daily living include: bathing, continence, dressing, eating, toileting and transferring.
The benefits paid under these riders are dependent upon the severity of the illness. Insurance companies may advance up to 90% of the death benefit.
Term life insurance policies that include these riders are generally inexpensive, especially compared to the health insurance premiums. It helps if you are healthy and don’t smoke.
So what does this mean for you? It means that if you have a Kidney Stone or break your arm falling off of a ladder, you will still have to pay your deductible. BUT, if you suffer a Critical or Chronic Illness, your life insurance policy will advance a portion of the death benefit that you can use for ANYTHING.
Accidental Injury Insurance
Luckily, if you do fall off of a ladder and break your arm, there is insurance that can cover that. Accident insurance is inexpensive and covers MOST of the incidents that will require a trip to the emergency room. My own plan costs only $21 per month.
Not a complete fix
Both the life insurance and the accidental injury insurance are very inexpensive solutions that may help you avoid having to pay the high deductible on your health insurance. But it’s not a complete fix. The accelerated living benefits will provide a benefit in case of a very serious health issue defined in the policy. The accidental injury insurance will provide coverage against some of the “unexpected” accidents around the house or on vacation. This covers a wide range, but still leaves you vulnerable to more common illness. These are inexpensive solutions that can help take the sting out of your high deductible health insurance.
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