Health Insurance Once You Turn 26
“To sum it up…”
- You can stay on your parents’ insurance until you are 26
- Once you turn 26, you need to find your own insurance
- You have some different options to find health insurance
- Do your research prior to turning 26 so that you will know what your choices are
As you probably know, it’s perfectly legal to remain on your parents’ insurance through age 25. But, once you reach 26, you will need to get your own insurance. Whether you live at home or not, you are considered too old to remain on your parents’ insurance once you reach the age of 26.
So what do you do to obtain health insurance once you are 26 years old? There are a number of places you can look for information. First, look up articles on health insurance for people who are first-time insurance owners.
The passing of the Affordable Care Act created a number of changes to America’s healthcare system. Obamacare attempted to offer a way to create a healthcare system that would satisfy the basic needs of individuals while avoiding a high degree of expense.
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Employer-based Insurance
One option you have is to seek out group or individual health insurance within your employment. There are often many options that you can choose from within your place of employment.
Many companies offer these benefits at the beginning of a fiscal year or when employees meet for their annual meeting. If your company does not observe this, you should take it upon yourself to ask what types of insurance are available.
Disadvantage to Employer-based insurance
The main disadvantage of employer-based insurance is that it is often not transportable. Transportability or portability as it is sometimes called, is the ability to take your insurance with you should you decide to leave your present job.
You should ask your employer if the health insurance you have with your present job is portable before you join the program.
Private Insurance Options
Private health insurance options are often the best simply because they offer much more personal choice with your health plan. Private companies, unlike Obamacare or any other streamlined health system, will allow you to pick and choose your options for your health plan.
Health Insurance Exchanges
The Affordable Healthcare Act allows for health insurance exchanges which allow some private companies to work within the framework of the health care system as a supplemental insurance.
What this means for you is that, even if you have Obamacare under the Affordable Care Act, you can still have a supplemental health insurance policy.
Types of Supplemental Health Insurance
Supplemental health insurance covers a variety of conditions that your mainstream insurance may not cover. Medigap coverage is a type of supplemental health insurance that covers areas of health expenses not covered by Medicare. Medicare is a government-based insurance that covers people aged 65 or older.
Why visit your doctor?
Some people wonder why you should visit your doctor when you are in the process of obtaining health insurance. While it is not usually required, if you do visit your doctor while you are getting your health insurance in place, you may get a better rate. This is, of course, determined by whether your health record is a good one.
What is an HMO?
HMOs are health management organization health plans that offer a reduced rate for health insurance while restricting the choice of doctors and clinicians to a network or doctors.
If you do not mind having to choose from the network of doctors, you may want to choose an HMO. It is generally much cheaper than other types of health delivery systems that offer more choice.
Many people prefer to choose their doctors, however, so for those people, it may be better to use one of the following other types of insurance:
PPOs
PPOs are known as preferred provider organizations. They allow people to choose from doctors inside their network or outside of their network. If you choose to go outside of your network, you will pay a higher price but this may be a small price to pay if you want to maintain control of your health care choices.
EPOs
EPOs are exclusive provider organizations that give people a network of doctors but limit choice in delivery systems. Many people believe that EPOs are just the new version of HMOs. They limit choice of doctors as well. If you stay within the network, you will pay much less but the choice is up to you.
Why private health insurance?
When you are looking for health insurance, you may want to consider all of these options. But in the end, you have to decide if you want to have less expense or less choice. It seems that, using these delivery models, people cannot have both choice and low expense.
Tips on Finding the Best Private Health Insurance
When shopping for health insurance at the age of 26, you likely have good health and that is in your favor. Use this to your advantage by contacting insurance companies and telling them about your current health.
This will put you at the best advantage to getting the best deal on your insurance. Check around and compare the cost of various health insurance choices and decide which one is best. Consider how much insurance you think you need, based upon the level of risk that you have to developing future health issues.
You will also want to consider what type of coverage you want. When shopping for health insurance, ask for a quote that includes all of the types of coverage and amounts of health coverage that you think you will need.
How much is too much?
When considering whether a plan is too much, think about your current health, what you can afford, and the risk involved. Don’t settle for just a bare bones type of plan if you have pre-existing health ocnditions. If you have specific health issues, you may want to consider getting a supplemental health coverage to cover those specific illnesses.
However, it may be difficult to get insurance for a specific health issue if you already have the condition.
Ask about the following types of supplemental insurance when comparing insurance plans online:
- Critical illness – Critical illness is any illness that is so severe that it completely changes the lifestyle or ability to function of a person. Some examples of critical illness could be a severe heart ailment, an disease that somewhat incapacitates a person, or any illness that keep the person from living a normal lifestyle. Supplemental insurance is available for various types of supplemental insurance and you can inquire about this by shopping online and asking a representative to help you make a decision on the policies.
- Cancer – Cancer is a devastating illness that is likely to severely damage someone’s financial ability and insurance often runs out before the illness has run its course. For that reason, it is wise to have a supplemental cancer policy in the unlikely event that you or someone you love develops this illness to protect your assets and your ability to provide for the patient. No one likes to think about this scenario, but if you have members of your family that have developed the disease, you are more at risk so you may want to consider this extra policy.
- Heart attack and stroke – When you are very young, you don’t think about getting a supplemental insurance policy for heart attack or stroke. The odds are that you would not suffer from this sort of illness at such a young age. However, remember that you can obtain this type of extra coverage if you think you are at risk and you are welcome to add it anytime.
Medicare
If you are under 65, you are not eligible for Medicare. But Medicare was developed by our federal government for the sole purpose of taking care of the medical needs of people 65 or older. In cases of individuals who have reached this age, you may also be able to use supplemental insurance to provide extra coverage to fill in the gaps for Medicare.
Make sure and ask your agent when you sign up for a plan to explain the benefits of Medicare gap insurance and supplemental policies, as well as the policies of various companies. The more you know about what a particular company or policy offers, the more you will be able to control the options that you have on your insurance policy.
Shop and compare your policies and decide what you want to sign up for based on your personal preferences and risk factors. Get free quotes right here and now by entering your zip code below!
