Finance & Marketing

When you finish college you could find that you are no longer covered under your family care health insurance plan and that you will need to arrange some sort of cover until you start work and come within your employer’s health care scheme. Similarly, if you have only just taken up a new job, you may find that you must work for a period of time before being eligible for membership of his health care scheme. These are just two of the many reasons which result in a need for cheap temporary health insurance.

But what exactly is short term health insurance cover?

As its name suggests, it is health insurance cover which provides health cover for a limited period of time in order to allow you to maintain cover while you are moving from one permanent health plan to the next. Coverage is usually issued for anything from one month to one year, although a lot of insurers nowadays limit policies to a maximum period of six months. In most cases insurers also know that it is not always easy to know exactly how long you will need short term cover and therefore are usually flexible in permitting you to extend your cover past the original expiry date when necessary.

Short term health insurance plans usually provide similar cover to that seen on permanent plans although there are a few very important differences.

Policies are usually indemnity plans and will not give cover for preventative treatments, such as check-ups, and will also exclude dental and optical treatment. Work-related illness and injury and pre-existing medical conditions are also normally excluded.

Your temporary policy will normally cover you for emergency medical care, prescription medicines, hospital treatment, laboratory and x-ray work, ambulance services and, in a few cases, at-home medical care.

So far so good, but how do you go about getting temporary health cover?

You must begin by calculating how many weeks or months you need the coverage for and when you want it to begin. You then want to find yourself an agent who specializes in arranging temporary health insurance.

Examine any plans offered with care and pay special attention to the exclusion clauses and don’t be shy when it comes to asking questions about any concerns you may have. Check through the application and ensure that all of your personal information is correct before signing anything. Additionally, do not forget to hold onto a copy of all of the paperwork for your own files.

The cost of a short term health insurance plan will vary with the type of cover which you select. It is possible however to keep the cost down by selecting to have a high deductible attached to the plan (the sum of money which you must pay as a contribution to your health care before the plan begins to pay). For example, you could select a 50/50 co-insurance option (the division of the payment for every bill after the deductible has been met) instead of the more normal 80/20 ratio.

Also, remember that there are some extras which you might wish to think about depending on your particular circumstances. For example, with the high cost of prescription medication, you may be better off paying for the coverage instead of leaving it off.

Without a doubt the most important thing to remember is to study any low cost health care insurance plan with care and ensure you are being offered the cover you want and which you will be paying for.