Are You Covered? Health Insurance Is a Luxury for Some

If you are not covered, health insurance in the U.S. may seem out of reach. In 2009, Kaiser Family Foundation and Health Research Trust, and showed that the average cost of employer sponsored health insurance plan was $ 5,791 for individuals and $ 13,375 for families. Due to costs, many employers are cutting back on coverage they offer and require employees to pay a larger share of premiums. Some workers can not cover a larger cut of their salaries, are opting to drop coverage. Others are just covered employees, as most employers pay a greater percentage of their premiums, and are looking to buy inexpensive plans or government sponsored insurance for spouses and children.

in the range of policies and prices vary greatly in what is covered. Health insurance plans for individuals average $ 161 per month in 2009, according to eHealth, an online resource for finding politike.Prosječna family paid $ 383 a month. It is difficult to make head to head comparison of a private policy with respect to employee-sponsored or group rate plans, such as the coverage offered is not always the same pool of people covered varies to a considerable decrease or increase the rate.

In addition to the prohibitive costs, some individuals are difficult, if not impossible to find an insurer willing to offer them policies. Those who have pre-existing conditions will often only be able to get a private policy that excludes coverage for their situation in a number of years. Those who are obese or smoke or have a history of mental illness also find it very difficult to find affordable coverage. States are insurance pools to ensure they are considered "uninsurable" but they often have very high premiums, putting them out of reach for many.

Even those with insurance may find that they can not afford to use it, such as plans with high deductibles, coinsurance rates, and expensive co-pays. $ 30-40 co-pay for regular doctor's visit is not uncommon with specialist visits and urgent care clinics costs even more. Deductibles may be several thousand dollars with 20% coinsurance rate on top of that. It may be tempting to take a gamble and go without insurance for those whose only choice is a policy with very high out of pocket costs before coverage kicks in fully covered medical expenses are the relics of different periods of insurance.