Health Insurance

Get the coverage you need that fits your lifestyle, budget, and healthcare requirements. Whether you’re considering Marketplace options, Christian-based sharing, or other options, we’ll help guide you through the technicalities to ensure you’re getting the best value for your needs.

Overview

The Affordable Care Act and Marketplace Plans.

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) or Obamacare was passed into law in 2010. The ACA did a number of good things such as mandating that all major medical health insurance plans be free from pre-existing condition limitations and that the plans have coverage for certain wellness and preventive care tests and procedures with a zero dollar cost share. The ACA, also, provides for tax credits to consumers to help them pay for the cost of health insurance. Lastly, the ACA requires all health insurance companies that want to sell major medical health insurance plans to offer their plans through an internet shopping tool called the Marketplace. Although the idea behind the Marketplace was to simplify health insurance to the point that consumers can competently shop for plans on their own, the process has proven to still be quite complicated. Evaluating plans, choosing the best one for your specific needs and getting the plan in place at the right time is not as simple as hoped. The good news is that professional insurance agents and advisors like us at Prescott Health & Life can help you with this. We work with health insurance plans every day and know the ins and outs of each one. We can help you pick the plan that is best suited for your specific needs and concerns. The best part about it is that our services are absolutely free to you! Simply contact us and we will help.

If, instead, you prefer to do some shopping on your own, simply click on the following link which will take you to our online quoting and plan comparison tool. We will be available whenever you need our help.

Beware of Fixed Indemnity Plans.

If you decide to shop for plans on your own, please be careful. It is fairly common today to hear about alternative plans to the major medical plans that are only available through the Marketplace. These alternatives are not what they are represented to be. There are two types of alternatives that are being sold to unwary consumers. The first is what is technically called a limited coverage fixed indemnity plan. These plans pay some amount toward small medical bills for doctors but they do almost nothing for the cost of expensive hospital stays and procedures. Even though these plans pay, for example, $100.00 per day while you are in the hospital, the full cost of a day in the hospital can range anywhere from $15,000.00 to $175,000.00. Getting $100.00 from insurance is a small drop in the bucket and will leave you bankrupt at the end of the day. To be blunt, limited coverage fixed indemnity plans are a sham and a waste of your money!

Short Term Health Plans.

The second and somewhat less problematic alternative is called a short term health plan. Although these plans have major medical coverage, the coverage is limited to a certain policy limit that can range anywhere from $100,000 to $2 million depending on the plan. More problematic is that these plans are limited in duration and exclude all pre-existing conditions. This presents a real problem should you get one of these plans, then get real sick and then the plan ends before you have gotten all the care that you need. You will then be left with no insurance while you might still be very sick and still subject to huge medical bills. These plans are a little better than the limited coverage fixed indemnity plans but they are still a big risk to you. The only instance when a short term health plan should be used is if your need for coverage is for less than a few months and when you have other guaranteed issue major medical insurance coverage waiting for you such as the Marketplace, Medicare or employer group health coverage when the short term health plan ends.

Christian Sharing Plans.

There is another alternative that is much better than a short term health plan but it is not for everyone and it is not, in fact, health insurance. This alternative is Christian based sharing programs such as Medi-Share. Medi-Share has nearly 356,000 members who contribute money on a monthly basis to the program and then the program pools that money together and uses it to pay medical expenses. The program costs a lot less than some Marketplace plans but it has pre-existing condition limitations and it is not insurance. This means that the program has no legal obligation to reserve money for future medical costs like insurance companies do and the government does not provide any financial backing if the program runs into financial troubles like it does for insurance companies. You literally need to have a fair bit of faith to be comfortable with this alternative.

At Prescott Health & Life, it is our job to know the ins and outs of all of your health insurance options. We are here to help you evaluate both the alternative plans as well as the Affordable Care Act. That is what we do. Please be sure to contact us for help so that you do not waste your time or make an expensive mistake. To get a free health insurance quote or learn more about your options contact us.