Should healthy people get health insurance? Yes.
Why? Because even healthy people get hurt.
Every year close to 3 million people sustain injuries from a car crash in the United States. It costs the United States just over $75 billion every year to pay for crash-related injuries. That means an individual bill for you that can easily be tens of thousands of dollars.
Of course, health insurance can do a lot more than just cover crash-related injuries. If you’re wondering, “Why do I need health insurance?”, we can help. We’ve created a short guide highlighting 5 of the top reasons to have health insurance.
So take a look! We’ll tell you the truth about why everyone needs health insurance.
1. Why Do I Need Health Insurance?
To answer the question, “why do I need health insurance?”, we’ll start with the financial side of things. If you don’t have health insurance right now, it’s probably because you don’t want to include the cost in your budget.
However, paying health insurance premiums will wind up being less expensive in the long run if you wind up needing medical attention. Even simple procedures can have out of pocket prices that are so high you’ll wind up exhausting your budget.
That’s why both healthy and chronically ill people need to have a solid health care plan in place. To keep things affordable, avoid going with expensive plans like cobra. What is cobra health insurance? It stands for the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, and it’s not the cheapest option.
2. Have Coverage for Routine Procedures
A routine medical procedure is something that’s usually easy to do. However, while they’re simple procedures, they can still cost quite a bit if you’re paying out of pocket.
Another word you may hear used for routine procedures is health screenings. By proactively screening your body, you’ll be able to catch little health issues before they become big problems.
Here’s a shortlist of routine procedures you may need:
- Blood pressure screening
- Cholesterol check
- Mammograms
- Pap smear
- Prostate exam
- Physical exam
- Colonoscopy
- Tetanus vaccine
Are you between the ages of 40 and 64? If yes, having health insurance will be especially helpful for you. The older you are, the more health screenings you’ll need to stay healthy. For instance, if you’re over the age of 44 you should be getting a diabetes screening every 3 years.
Sometimes primary care physicians are willing to take cash payments in place of you having health insurance coverage. This works great when the routine procedure is something the primary care physician can do in their office.
However, if it’s something your primary care physician can’t do, they’ll refer you to a specialist. Since the specialist doesn’t have a pre-established relationship with you, they’re not likely to want to work out any type of cash payment plan. Instead, specialists will usually require you to pay in full ahead or provide up to date insurance information.
3. Emergency Room Visits
Even going to the hospital for something as simple as a bee sting can wind up costing you thousands of dollars. This was the case for Sylvia Rosas, a Florida resident who was stung by a bee in her back yard.
Slyvia didn’t have an EpiPen on her, and she was afraid she might have a severe allergic reaction like she had in the past. To play it safe, Sylvia took a trip to the emergency room. However, since health insurance wasn’t helping cover her costs, Sylvia wound up with a $12,000 bill!
As you can see, a trip to the emergency room isn’t cheap. Even if you’re only there for a couple of hours like Sylvia was, you could wind up owing way more in medical bills than you can afford.
Luckily, if you have health insurance, all you’ll need to worry about is meeting your deductible. After you pay your deductible the insurance will kick in to help reduce your emergency costs.
4. You May Qualify for Special Coverage
Are you under the age of 30? If yes, then you could qualify for a catastrophic health insurance plan.
You may also be eligible if you have some type of hardship exemption. A hardship exemption means some type of life difficulty is preventing you from getting insurance. For instance, if you were recently evicted or filed for bankruptcy, those would be eligible financial hardships.
What exactly is catastrophic health insurance? It’s a type of private insurance plan that has low monthly premiums. However, the deductibles do tend to be higher than other plans.
The idea behind catastrophic health insurance plans is that you’ll be able to take care of medical emergencies, without going too deep into debt.
5. Income Tax Benefits
You can deduct health insurance premiums when you do your taxes. You can deduct your premium payments because the government considers health insurance to be a medical expense. Generally, any amount of money you’re paying out of pocket towards insurance premiums will be eligible for deduction.
For example, let’s say you purchased a health insurance plan from the federal market place. As long as your not receiving premium subsidies, you’ll be able to list the entire cost of the insurance as a deductible item.
A subsidy is an amount of money you don’t have to pay back that helps you cover some type of expense. The federal government has 2 types of subsidies you can apply for concerning health insurance plans.
The first is the Advanced Premium Credit subsidy that can lower your monthly insurance premiums. The second is the Cost Sharing Reduction subsidy that can lower out of pocket costs.
For instance, the Cost Sharing Reduction subsidy could help with co-pays or deductibles. If you do receive premium subsidies, you can only list the amount you paid out of pocket as a tax deduction.
Feel Good About Your Health
Why do I need health insurance? Now you know about 5 of the top reasons to have active coverage! Don’t wait to protect your health and your finances.
Start exploring health insurance plans today until you find a plan you can afford. For more ways to feel good about your health, explore the rest of this site.
