Hassle-Free Health Coverage: Chapter 12 Summary
Tips for smart shoppers always sound a little bit like basic common sense. But the purpose of this chapter has been to offer critical points in one place. If you know that you're going to have to review or change your health coverage, this chapter may help -- as a kind of crib sheet for the issues to address.
That said, remember some general shopping tips.
Be careful of a plan whose description of benefits sounds too good to be true. It may be. Often, agents -- in an attempt to convince you to purchase a policy from them -- will give inaccurate, exaggerated, and misleading descriptions of the benefits provided by policies.
Similarly, agents sometimes try to get you to surrender insurance you already own and replace your coverage with a policy they are selling by misrepresenting the policy, by making an incomplete comparison of the policies, or even by telling you that your current company is in financial trouble.
You can even check out the insurance companies' financial stability ratings. A.M. Best Co. rates each company on a letter scale from A to F, in order to provide an overall indication of the company's ability to meet its policyholder obligations. Their ratings are based on financial strength, the company's market profile and operating performance. For instance, A++ and A+ indicate Superior while F indicates the company is in liquidation. These ratings can be found at your local library or on-line.
As with all insurance, it pays to compare the costs of similar policies available from different insurers.
Shop aggressively when you first buy a policy; after that, change insurers or policies only when you desire to make substantial changes to your coverage. If you cancel one policy to purchase another, there is generally no refund of premium, and you may be subject to new policy limitations and restrictions.
There is a plan to meet your needs. You just have to keep looking until you find it. Remember to review the cost, check the benefits and the service issues that are important to you, before you make a choice. And, don't be afraid to ask questions.
