Saturday, January 31, 2009

Short Term Health Insurance

By Jeff Cline

Insurance that you only purchase to cover you for a short length of time is called short term or temporary health insurance. It allows you to choose the length of time based on how long you may need coverage. Typically that would be 1-12 months.

It is good for consumers who will be having a gap in coverage due to a loss or change in job. It will cover and unforeseen illness or accident during this time. It usually requires you to o meet a deductible at which time coverage will begin.

The main reason for short term is to cover things such as in and outpatient hospitalization and surgeries. It would pay surgeon fees, room and board and equipment. It would cover the hospital stay and related expenses. just incase an unexpected illness occurred.

You would not expect it to cover routine office visits or prescriptions meds. Any of these cost you would expect to pay out of pocket. If you had labs or x-rays for a minor illness or occurring from an office visit you would likely to pay for that as well.

It is not uncommon for consumers to purchase these plans to replace expensive Cobras plans or temporarily while the carrier is underwriting a long term traditional plan. Sometimes the underwriting takes 6 or more weeks and they find it necessary to obtain something temporary.

You may pay a per day rate or per month. Some carriers expect you to pay for the whole term versus month to month. However, you can find a variance in options as you shop carriers for rates.

Traditional plans have a long enrollment process. With short term they are quick and easy. Enrollment usually takes 5-10 minutes and in many cases approved right away. You could be covered as soon as the next day.

If you choose one of these plans do not stress about the terms. If you are uncertain you can usually reapply and start a new term at least once a year. So if you need to extend your original 6 months to 6 more that is not a problem.

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