Affordable Personal and Family Health Insurance
Making the Best of It - How to Shop for Family Health Insurance Policy
When shopping for personal and family health insurance, the first question to ask yourself is, "How old am I?" Fortunately, it is a question for which you will have a ready answer; other questions will not be so easy. Insurance companies are very concerned with your age and will be more helpful if you are under rather than over fifty. If you are over sixty-five, you can thumb your nose at them to some extent; you are eligible for Medicare and are not dependent on personal health insurance for basic coverage.
The ideal age for the applicant applying for personal and/or family health insurance, from the insurance company's standpoint, is around thirty to thirty-five. At that age the level of your general health is fairly apparent (have you let yourself go? are you still trim and fit? are you addicted to anything—drugs, cigarettes, alcohol?), and your occupation is to some extent stabilized (most people do not become steeplejacks, test pilots, or deep-sea divers for the first time after 30). Your mental health is also capable of assessment; nervous breakdowns, therapy, and institutionalization would all be a matter of record and would have to be itemized on your application. It is surprising that your mental health is all that important, since in most instances the coverage you will be able to obtain in this area is so meager as to be practically nonexistent. In spite of this, a record of mental illness, no matter how long ago or how mild, turns insurance companies off.
On Your Own - Personal Health Insurance
Any individual or family who must get personal health insurance directly from a company or an agent instead of as a fringe benefit is at a tremendous disadvantage in the marketplace. Not only will they find that no one is particularly interested in their business, they will also soon discover that the family health insurance policies that are offered to them are fewer, vastly inferior in coverage, and far more costly than those offered to groups, especially to large groups.