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Middle Class and Uninsured
How to find affordable coverage
By Sarah Mahoney, Women’s Day
January 6, 2004
If you are one of the millions of American women without insurance or if you find yourself on the verge of losing coverage, financial experts suggest scrambling for insurance immediately, even if it means borrowing money. While it’s tempting to think you can coast for a short while, a single event - a car accident, a serious illness, even a pregnancy - could torpedo your family’s finances for years to come. Uncovered medical bills are one of the primary reasons for bankruptcy. To protect yourself:
Shop around. The biggest companies (such as Blue Cross Blue Shield, Aetna and CIGNA) often have the best rates, but sometimes smaller regional companies can do better. It’s worth investing an hour or so on the web, where sites such as www.ehealthinsurance.com will round up rates from several companies. Rates for a family of four can range from $500 to $1500 a month. Experts recommend talking to at least five companies before making a decision.
Find power in numbers. In general, the larger the group, the lower the rates. You may find that coverage as an individual family is too expensive, but a policy bought through a professional association is affordable. Self-employed? Check out the website for the National Association for the Self-Employed (www.nase.org).
Consider a high deductible or catastrophe policy “Often, people choose to go without insurance if they can’t get the full-benefit plan,” says Christina Povenmire, M.B.A., a certified financial planner in Columbus, Ohio. But catastrophic policies, which have per-person deductibles as high as $5,000 are a far better option than going uninsured and can cost as little as $200 a month for a family.
Ask about special programs run by your city. Claudia Fitzgerald, who owns a flower shop in Sacramento, California, couldn’t afford to insure her three employees, until a local program called SacAdvantage hooked her up for around $300 per month. (Her employees’ per-paycheck contributions range from $15 to $45.)
Don’t neglect disability. When you’ve lost a basic health insurance, it’s easy to dismiss disability coverage as a frill. “But you have a much greater chance of being disabled in your thirties and forties than you have of dying,” says Joyce L. Franklin, a certified financial planner and CPA in Larkspur, California. “It’s vital coverage.”
©2004 Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S., Inc.