Major Medical Vs Mini Plans

[Crabcake Johnny]

Not me. Out of 100 agents selling individual health insurance I'd guess 80% of them don't know their ass from a hole in the wall. Health insurance in general would be far better off without commissioned agents. The bad majority spoil it for the few who are good.

 

[James]

In the end I think the mini med plans will if anything give a boost to major medical. Its like the old saying, "It's easier to buy what you are familiar with then something you not familiar with". Getting more people covered and using insurance (health) will only create more interest and desire for better plans when the person is able to take advantage of better plans.

 

[somarco]

Getting more people covered and using insurance (health) will only create more interest and desire for better plans when the person is able to take advantage of better plans.

Do those who buy term insurance eventually take advantage of buying perm or do they get lulled into a false sense of satisfaction until it is too late?

 

[James]

Do those who buy term insurance eventually take advantage of buying perm or do they get lulled into a false sense of satisfaction until it is too late?

I would venture to say that more people that buy a perm policy has a term in place versus those that have no coverage and then going straight into a perm policy. I'm not counting Final Expense in my estimation.

 

[somarco]

Possibly.

But most folks who buy mini-med never take off the training wheels and graduate to a major med.

Is mini-med better than no coverage at all? Very slightly. A mini-med will not keep you out of bankruptcy when the truck runs over you but a high deductible major med might.

 

[James]

Possibly.

But most folks who buy mini-med never take off the training wheels and graduate to a major med.

Is mini-med better than no coverage at all? Very slightly. A mini-med will not keep you out of bankruptcy when the truck runs over you but a high deductible major med might.

Okay, I can go with the possible. Yet do you think that if this group of income people had no coverage would they be more likely to face financial hardship due to catostrophic or everyday medical bills? I do believe the numbers suggest that most face financial hardship over medical bills that a limited plan would pay, then those that face catostrophic type of medical bills. A family that depends upon 20-30 grand income can not pay 10 thousand dollar bill, it causes the same bankruptcy proceedings that a 100 grand plus would, that is if you could even file for bankruptcy due to medical bills today which I don't think you can now.

 

[Crabcake Johnny]

The average person in the US who filed for BK filed for $13,000. So a very high deductible plan does not keep people out of bk. In fact over half of everyone in the US who filed for BK did so over medical claims and most already had major medical coverage. If you look at the study it also notes the people who lost coverage during the course of their illness. This study clearly indicates that "major medical" has almost no impact of keeping people out of BK.

http://www.hms.harvard.edu/news/releases/2_2Himmelstein.html

 

[Crabcake Johnny]

The average person in the US who filed for BK filed for $13,000. So a very high deductible plan does not keep people out of bk. In fact over half of everyone in the US who filed for BK did so over medical claims and most already had major medical coverage. If you look at the study it also notes that many people who lost coverage during the course of their illness.

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]"Among those with private insurance, however, one-third had lost coverage at least temporarily by the time they filed for bankruptcy. Often illness led to job loss, and with it the loss of health insurance. Out-of-pocket medical costs (for co-payments, deductibles and uncovered services) averaged $13,460 for those with private insurance at the onset of their illness, vs. $10,893 for the uninsured. The highest costs -- averaging $18,005 -- were incurred by those who initially had private coverage but lost it in the course of their illness. Many families were bankrupted by medical expenses well below the catastrophic thresholds of high deductible plans that are increasingly popular with employers. The authors comment that even their own coverage from Harvard leaves them at risk for out-of-pocket costs above levels that often led to medical bankruptcy."

[/FONT]
http://www.hms.harvard.edu/news/releases/2_2Himmelstein.html

So you can sell very high deductible plans all day long. You're not keeping the average person from filing BK.

 

[trvlnut]

I think DI would sure help most of those who filed for BK. Sadly, few people have DI.

 

[arnguy]

Agreed!