The importance of having health insurance | Fort Worth Benefits Broker

Researchers from the Harvard Medical School have linked Americans’ lack of health insurance with an increased risk of death. But having health insurance is important for both health and personal financial wellness. People in the U.S. who have health insurance benefit from:

Better health outcomes, driven by a consistent source of health care. People who are uninsured have worse health outcomes, and are four times as likely to delay needed health care as insured persons.

Better access to preventive health care services, with health insurance companies alerting members when and where to get diagnostic screenings such as mammograms and colonoscopies. People without health insurance tend to postpone prevention, leading to later diagnoses of illnesses, complications and higher costs in the long-run. Uninsured cancer patients are diagnosed later and die earlier compared to those with insurance Kaiser

Access to prescription drugs, where uninsured people are five times as likely not to get needed medications. Many prescriptions take care of many chronic conditions like high blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes and asthma. Unchecked and untreated, these conditions can worsen and lead people to hospital emergency rooms which cost, on average, $1,233 for a visit. Furthermore, people without health insurance are 3 times more likely to not take their meds as prescribed.

A more productive work life, enhancing job security and satisfaction. There is evidence that employees’ lower out-of-pocket costs raise productivity at the workplace. Furthermore, employers are expanding wellness programs to help workers improve personal health status and bolster productivity on-the-job — and, ultimately, corporate profits.

Better financial health, where insured people can usually access health care services at cheaper rates. Access to insurance allows consumers to take advantage of discounts negotiated by health plans with hospitals and doctors compared with paying for services on your own. Uninsured consumers who show up in the emergency room and get admitted to hospital are generally charged the full “rack rate” for care.

While cost barriers to health care have been growing in the past decade, even among insured adults, uninsured people have been more severely impacted by growing costs. This has left people without health insurance more at-risk for having high medical bills.

Health insurance boosts the link between health and wealth. The uninsured are three times more likely than the insured to be unable to pay for basic necessities because of their medical bills. Uninsured people are also more likely to use up their savings on medical care.

Good health insurance covers catastrophic costs when people get very sick – requiring long and successive hospital admissions and expensive treatments. For people without health insurance, medical debt can lead to lower credit scores: in the U.S., uninsured people are at greater risk of filing for personal bankruptcy. Medical expenses are a leading cause of bankruptcy in the U.S.

Health reform – call it The Affordable Care Act, its official name, or Obamacare – was legislated to get uninsured people in the United States access to health insurance. On October 1, 2013, Health Insurance Marketplaces (called Health Insurance Exchanges in the original law) will launch to enable health consumers to “shop” for health insurance plans in their states. The law provides for subsidies for consumers that fall within certain annual income categories.

These subsidies will act as discounts on the price of health insurance. To figure out how much of a subsidy you can qualify for, you will need to know your latest annual income reported to the U.S. Internal Revenue Services (IRS) in April 2013 on your individual W-2 form filed with the IRS. More on how to calculate your health insurance subsidy can be found on this website provided by the Kaiser Family Foundation (a non-profit organization whose mission is to be, “a trusted source of information in a health care world dominated by vested interests.”) More on using Health Insurance Marketplaces can be found on HealthcareDIY here.

Whether you receive your health insurance through an employer, or via a health insurance marketplace, once insured, it’s important to understand your benefits.

Taking time to understand your health plan is worth it: you can save money and get certain health services that may be covered for free by your health plan to encourage you to receive them. Only 1 in 5 people with a HDHP understood that their plan excluded preventive office visits, medical tests and screenings from their deductible. And, 1 in 5 people enrolled in these plans also delayed or avoided a preventive office visit, test or screening because of worry about cost. These plan members didn’t understand that non-preventive office visits and tests apply to the deductible, but preventive tests and visits are exempt – that is, free — to the member. That’s because the folks who designed the health insurance plan understand the value of prevention and eliminating cost barriers for health plan members to seek care sooner rather than later.

Do not dismiss the importance of health insurance in your and your family’s life. You may not need it now, but in an instant, having it could save both your life and your financial health.

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