How To Get Low Cost Health Insurance If You're Laid Off!

If you've been laid off or think you may be getting laid off, these are some tips that will help you get long term or short term low cost health insurance. Of course you don't want to go without health insurance if you don't have to and if you can find cheap health insurance or at least something affordable or even better at low cost, then that may solve your problems in the interim - at least until you become re-employed again or find another job.

You may have concerns about how you're going to find and pay for health insurance. It can be high but there are lower priced options. This is a lot cheaper than the costs if a major medical problem comes up.

There are state plans but they may not offer enough coverage to satisfy your needs. They usually offer limited Medicaid coverage.

Here are the options:

COBRA: After you're laid off or quit your job you're entitled by law to get insurance coverage under COBRA for 18 months. COBRA is an acronym for Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985. Employers won't be contributing to your health insurance coverage, which is usually around 85% or so, so your costs of insurance coverage will be much higher than it has been.

They will charge an administration fee of up to 2% also. COBRA covers those who were employed with companies with at least 20 employees except some states will cover you if you worked for a smaller company.

Individual plans: If you get an individual insurance policy the costs will be based on your age, health and state you reside in. If you smoke, premiums can cost twice as much. Older folks may face higher insurance costs and in some cases may not be able to get coverage at all.

Government plans: You may not be eligible for government insurance programs but you may be able to get low cost health insurance policies for your children. Families must make less than $42,000 a year for a family of four in order to be eligible for this Medicaid coverage.

So the best approach is to find out first if you're eligible for COBRA and can afford to pay it somehow. Then find out if your state government insurance program will cover your children based on your current family income. And make sure to get some free low cost health insurance quotes and go for the bare bones coverage. Quotes are free and you can get several at one time to compare insurance rates. This can be competitive for health insurance companies and is worth a try and costs you nothing.

Things to think about and corners that you might cut when inputting your information for quotes is - what exactly are your prescription needs, if any, especially if you're young and healthy. You can choose a low cost health insurance plan that has you pay more of the out-of-pocket costs. That will also help lower your premium.

Co-payment fees at your doctor's office can vary quite a bit so find out what this will be from each insurance company and estimate how often you make doctor visits. These are just some of the tips to help you get long term or short term low cost health insurance. It will be hard to get cheap insurance that doesn't involve a reduction in quality of your care. Get some quotes and compare for a start so you have something to work with.

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