Cheap Medical Insurance Plans For Individuals With Cancer
Finding affordable health insurance coverage these days is not easy but locating low cost medical insurance when you are suffering from cancer is thought by most people to be impossoble. But, as long as you know where to look it is easier than you may think.
The principle difficulty facing people suffering from cancer when when it comes to looking for medical insurance is the fact that almost all health plans include exclusions for pre-existing conditions which will exclude coverage altogether for a particular condition, cover a condition for an additional cost or cover a condition at normal rates but require a ‘waiting period’ before cover for a condition comes into effect. A lot of people are frightened off simply by the phrase ‘pre-existing condition exclusions’ although it is usually not nearly as frightening as they imagine.
People fall into two categories when looking for medical insurance – those people who are looking for an individual health plan and those individuals who are looking for cover under a group health insurance scheme.
Those people who are looking for an individual policy have to begin by deciding on the type of policy that you need and then find one that provides you with the coverage you want at a price which you are prepared to pay. Basically, your choice between a Fee-for-Service (or indemnity) plan, a Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) plan, a Point-of-Service Plan (POS) or a Preferred Provider Organization (PPO) plan. Naturally, there are advantages and disadvantages to each of these plans however, within each type, you will normally discover several plans that will meet your requirements.
Should you be considering a group health scheme then you will either be looking at a scheme provided by an employer or looking at one of the large number of plans available through such things as motoring organizations, clubs or senior citizen groups.
A group scheme provided by an employer is often the best option for a person with cancer who needs to get around the issue of pre-existing exclusion clauses as these group schemes are tightly controlled by federal and state laws which restrict insurers when it comes to imposing exclusions. For instance, an insurer is not allowed to deny you cover merely because of a pre-existing condition and, if you are moving from one plan to another and have a break in cover of fewer than 63 days, no exclusion period will be imposed providing a condition was covered and any waiting period was completed under your prior scheme. Additionally, if you do have to wait until cover kicks in, an employer’s plan cannot make you wait more than 12 months.
Group plans, other than those which are provided by an employer, will also generally treat pre-existing conditions more favorably than individual policies, although here you will have to look carefully at individual plans.
If you are currently sitting back because you believe that you will not be able to get health insurance coverage as a consequence of having cancer then think again. You might be pleasantly surprised to discover that you can not only get cover, but can get it at a price which you can afford. So, shop around and then get yourself an online discount health insurance quote.