Individuals with pre existing conditions like diabetes, cancer, heart disease, heart attack, stroke, kidney disease, liver disease, AIDS, depression and a long list of other health conditions, have found it almost impossible to find affordable healthcare. These health issues are causing thousands of individuals to be declined for health insurance. If you are looking for uninsurable health insurance or pre existing condition health insurance, you know how hard a task that can be.
Sometimes preexisting conditions allow an insurance company to deny your health insurance request. However, there are ways you can be provided with affordable healthcare coverage. If you can combine creative insurance planning with the knowledge and understanding of what is available, you’ll greatly reduce the chance of potential financial strain on you and your family.
Should you find an insurance company that will provide health insurance; you’ll quickly discover that this coverage is not cheap. And… the coverage will probably be limited in scope when compared to the coverage for someone with no known health problems. The bottom line is this, whatever coverage you can get, it’s probably best to take it until something better comes along.
You can find affordable health care. I have listed 6 choices below.
Group Health Insurance: The best choice for those with a chronic conditions, pre existing conditions or even uninsurable. It’s really a guaranteed issue health insurance plan. With group health insurance, coverage is usually provided by your employer or your spouse’s employer. The employee will typically have little, if any, choice concerning the features of the coverage. The main advantage of group insurance: new employees will usually get coverage without any medical questions or concern for a pre existing condition. One disadvantage: coverage usually ends when the employee’s job ends.
Professional Organizations: Most don’t know about this option. A number of professional organizations offer their members a health insurance program as a fringe benefit. This health insurance coverage could be a great way to stay insured if you are uninsurable or have a preexisting condition. This is really like a group health insurance policy. See if you can get access to a membership organization which offers health insurance for preexisting conditions or health insurance for the uninsurable. A valid certification or career experience may be required to join. Other associations might accept your membership without these prerequisites. Look for local and national associations. Even with a yearly membership fee, it still might be worth the money.
Private Individual Health Insurance: If you are without group healthcare coverage from an employer or professional organization health plan, yet you have pre existing conditions that have caused you to be uninsurable, obtaining individual health insurance is probably going be a little tough. If you do find coverage, the premiums will often times be unaffordable. However, this still might be your best choice for now. You can always go with a better plan in the future.
State Risk Pools: For individuals who have serious medical conditions, some states allow access to either private individual health insurance for uninsurable or health plans for uninsurable. These plans are defined as high-risk health insurance pools. Individuals in these state risk pools have access to comprehensive private coverage plans. However, the premiums can be very costly, often double what private health insurance would cost for someone who is healthy. Individuals may find enrollment is closed to a new enrollee or the state pool has a long waiting list. These high-risk pools are often the last resort for people who have serious pre existing conditions and are paying exorbitant fees for their insurance, or who are able to meet key state conditions for enrollment.
Discount Health Cards: Companies selling discount health cards claim to save subscribers money by offering discounts on a hospital, doctor, prescription drugs, dental, vision and chiropractic care. Consumers seeking affordable healthcare may be confused by these health cards. They really are not health insurance. You’re still responsible for paying the medical bills. The discount health card simply offers a reduced price for services from participating healthcare providers. They often times make grossly inflated promises on expected benefits and savings. Use caution when purchasing these discount health cards. You may pay more than you save.
Guaranteed Issue Health Insurance: For those who are uninsurable, those with preexisting conditions or someone who just can not afford or qualify for health insurance, then a guaranteed issue health insurance plan may be a good choice. These plans, known as “mini-meds”, are not to be confused with “discount health cards”. These plans are usually quite affordable and offer a considerable amount of coverage. Most pre existing conditions are covered after 12 months. Understand these plans are not basic health insurance or major medical coverage but are limited indemnity plans. This just means the plan pays benefits based on a pre-defined amount per service or procedure. Usually covered are doctor visits, hospital stays, emergency room visits, surgery, accidental death, etc. Most do not require completing medical questions or taking a physical exam to qualify.
Here this nice Video about health insurance
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On her situation, a variable annuity should be an option for her. In variable annuities, it solves the problem of dying too soon or living too long. The money grows tax-deferred and if she dies before she starts withdrawing money from it, it will pay a minimum death benefit by the amount she contributed into it. If there's gains on her investments, those gains will be added on top of the minimum death benefit. So, if she invested $10,000 into a variable annuity and something happens to her and her account is worth $20,000, the beneficiary will receive $20,000. If its below $10,000, say $7000, it will pay $10,000 to the beneficiary.
When she decides when she wants to start withdrawing money from it, the variable annuity will pay her monthly for the rest of her life. However, she will lose the death benefit. The amount she will get each month will depend on how the market is performing. So she has to consider the fact that variable annuity can only provide supplemental income just like social security.
IRAs are a great retirement tool because they too grow tax-deferred. There are 2 main types of IRAs for individual persons, which are Traditional IRA and Roth IRA. There are several other IRAs, but those are for small businesses.
Some rules you should know about for all IRAs:
Rule #1) Withdrawals before age 59 1/2 are usually subjected to 10% early withdrawal penalty. Withdrawals that are not subjected to 10% penalty before age 59 1/2 are:
1) You may make withdrawals before age 59 1/2 if you become permanently disabled.
2) If you die before age 59 1/2, your estate or your beneficiary will not be affected by the rule.
3) You may make withdrawals to pay for non-reimbursed medical expenses IF AND ONLY IF the expenses exceeds 7.5% of you adjusted gross income (AGI, which means your gross income after all qualifying deductions are made)
4) You may make withdrawals up to $10,000 for purchase, building, or rebuilding of your first home. This can include children, grandchildren, and your spouse if you already bought your first home.
5) You may make withdrawals to pay for higher education expenses. This can include you, your children, and your grandchildren.
6) If you are out of a job and have medical insurance, you may make withdrawals to pay the premium.
Rule #2) Individual must be earning income legally.
Rule #3) In year 2008, individual can only contribute up to $5000 (if you are below the age of 50) or $6000 (if you are 50 years old or older) or 100% of their income, whichever is lesser. So, if your income is $2000, you can only put in $2000.
Here's the difference between Traditional IRAs and Roth IRAs
1) Withdrawals on the gains in the investment are taxable in Traditional IRAs, but not in Roth IRAs.
2) In Traditional IRA, there is mandatory minimum withdrawal after age 70 1/2. So anyone above this age can't open a Traditional IRA. In Roth IRAs, you can keep the money in there as long as you want.
3) Contributions to a Traditional IRA are tax-deductible, but will later be taxed when you start withdrawing. In Roth IRAs, none of your contributions are tax-deductible.
4) Any contributions in either IRA that are NOT tax-deductible can be withdrawn tax-free and penalty free at anytime, even before age 59 1/2.
What should your mom get? I can't really say since I really don't know her situation, besides the fact she don't have good health. I can recommend a company you should look at. There's only one company that fully serves middle income families in America and that's Primerica Financial Services. You should check them out because I'm a client there and they don't charge any fees for their services. They are a member of Citigroup and they specialize in helping middle income families get out of debt, build wealth for long term goals, finding the right amount of coverage for life insurance, and making a financial plan to help clients reach their financial goals.
No. I looked into this myself when my COBRA ran out, and I ended up purchasing medical insurance without prescription coverage at all.
Go to pparx.org. It's the Partnership for Prescription Assistance. PPA itself doesn't help you pay for prescriptions, but it's an organization that gathered info on programs that pharmaceutical companies have for helping patients who are unable to afford their medication. You can go to the PPA website, enter a list of the medications you take, and it will tell you if there are programs that can help you get your meds for free or at a discount. If there are such programs, they have links to the forms you have to fill out.
If that doesn't work, talk to your doctor. Many brand-name medications are given to doctors as samples, and while they wouldn't be able to just supply you with samples indefinitely, they might be able to help out on occasion.