When you’re young, having health insurance may not seem necessary. The extra monthly expense to cover something that may happen can take money out of your budget to pay for other experiences and costs that are important in the present moment.
But in reality, just one critical illness like cancer, heart attack, or stroke could change your life forever.
That is why health insurance is not only a tool to protect your health but also protect you financially from going into medical debt because of one of these bills.
How health insurance works
Health insurance policies cover critical illnesses and their treatment. typically these costs go toward your deductible, or your share of medical costs. Once you have paid toward your deductible the insurance company will cover the remaining costs for your treatment at 100%.
If you are on an ACA plan these treatment amounts are unlimited, but some private plans have a cap on how much they will cover, usually one or two million dollars.
While it may seem you will never reach this amount, staying in the hospital for months on end and getting multiple surgeries or expensive treatments can add up.
What happens without health insurance
Without health insurance, you would be responsible for 100% of these bills. Imagine if you left the hospital with a $300,000 bill and did not have health insurance. Now you have a medical debt for the rest of your life.
But with health insurance, you would only be subject to paying a deductible amount. Currently in 2024 for an individual, it is $9,450. This is just a fraction of what a full medical bill would be.
Supplemental Insurance
There are supplemental insurance products that you can add to your main health coverage to cover costs that the insurance company will not cover. This includes experimental treatments, expensive medications, or out-of-network costs.
When you are diagnosed with a critical illness and treated, you will receive a cash benefit that you can put toward the deductible amount and any other expenses such as rent or groceries.
Ultimately, having a supplemental policy will help replace your income when you are no longer able to work because of your critical illness and prevent you from accumulating medical debt.
Overall, having health insurance will give you peace of mind in the case of a critical illness. While you don’t know if you will get sick, health insurance is a tool to protect you financially from the worst-case scenario.
Contact me today for a free consultation.