Individual Health Plans Under Obamacare

What's in Obama CARE?

A Healthy Dose of CARING

The Affordable Care Act, also known as Obama Care, modeled after Original Medicare, is intended to be the Coverage of Last Resort for people like myself who are 1099, Self-Employed - who don't otherwise get Employee Benefits from a Job, who are too young for Medicare or make too much to qualify for Medicaid.

Essentially President Obama did for the rest of us that Medicare has done to cover Senior Citizens.

As a Life & Health Insurance Agent in good standing of more than 13 years now, I talk to people a lot about their personal Philosophy of how THEY want to be covered by their Health Insurance. This speaks to "Suitability of Coverage." Some in the industry speak of this as doing a "Needs Assessment." What ever we call it, a good Agent will offer Insureds the best plan according what THE INSURED wants & what THEY need - not just what the Agent makes the biggest commission on.

Suitability of Coverage is a primary tenant of ETHICS

In my decades-long career of providing Life-Saving Health Insurance to my Clients I've enrolled just about every type of Health Plan there is. I began with Medicare in 2006 working with Senior Citizens. I've sold Individual Plans & I've been an Employee Benefits Counselor.

What I have found to be the common denominator in all of these plans are SUPPLEMENTS.

When purchasing Health Insurance people need to keep two things in mind :

"what do I care about - coverage, or cost?"

Even Original Medicare need Supplements for things like Dental, Vision, Prescription Drugs & Long-Term Care.

With the exception of Long-Term Care, most Medicare plans include these items now, providing that Seniors choose a Medicare Advantage Plan.

In the Industry we refer to the Philosophy of Health CARE that combines Major Medical + a Supplement as "Consumer Driven Benefits" or CDB.

Supplements are of particular importance when keeping costs down is a factor & an Insured picks a High Deductible Plan.

The only time I would recommend a High Deductible Plan to an Insured is if I was sitting with someone who is "young & bullet-proof," with nothing going on Medically that required monthly Medications, Doctor Office Visits or Hospitalizations.

A person like this who has Aged-Out of Coverage with their parents & are 1st-time purchasers would not see the value in buying Health Insurance in the first place & would likely resent being "forced to buy Health Insurance."

I would remind a person like this that we are Required by Law to purchase Liability Insurance for our cars. People literally CANNOT drive a new car off the lot without purchasing AUTO INSURANCE.

If we wreck our car, we can buy a new car, but we ONLY HAVE ONE BODY.

For a person like this, it would be perfectly Suitable to get a High Deductible Plan plus a Supplement such as an Accident Plan.

The reason I like Accident Plans, for example, is because anybody anywhere at anytime can have an accident regardless of Age, Sickness or Health.

They provide Coverage for the "What Ifs."

"I'm healthy now but what if I break a leg?"