Health insurance in Houston is in crisis. With 1.1 million uninsured residents, it has the highest uninsured rate among the United States’ top 10 metropolitan areas. If you’re uninsured here’s how to get inexpensive health insurance in Houston.
Options for Inexpensive Health Insurance
The best way to get inexpensive health insurance is to buy a plan through your employer. Unfortunately, Texas has a large number of small businesses that do not offer health insurance. Consequently, only 48% of Texans are covered by employer insurance policies.
Texas offers state-sponsored health insurance programs for the uninsured. Low-income individuals and families may qualify for Medicaid, although income limits to qualify are among the lowest in the nation. A Children’s Health Insurance Program is available for children whose families don’t qualify for Medicaid but can’t afford private health insurance.
Texas has no sponsored health insurance program for childless adults. However, individuals who cannot find affordable insurance because of preexisting conditions may qualify for the Texas Health Insurance Risk Pool.
To find out if you’re eligible for state-sponsored health insurance, visit the Texas Department of Insurance website (http://www.tdi.state.tx.us/).
Another option is to find out whether any groups or associations you belong to offer group health coverage as a benefit to members. These kinds of group plans are similar to employer-sponsored plans but may offer less coverage and higher deductibles. In addition, you’ll probably have to pay the entire premium yourself, although it should be less expensive than a private health insurance plan.
Finding Inexpensive Private Insurance
If you can’t find any group health programs, your other option is to buy private health insurance. Private health insurance is the most expensive, but you can save costs by …
* Setting a high deductible or co-payments.
* Choosing an HMO or PPO health insurance plan.
* Choosing a policy that offers just the coverages you need rather than comprehensive coverage.
The best way to get inexpensive health insurance is by shopping around and making sure you choose a low-cost policy. Go to an insurance comparison website where you can get quotes from multiple companies. With some of these websites you can talk with insurance professionals online or by phone to get answers to your insurance questions (see link below).
Visit http://www.LowerRateQuotes.com/health-insurance.html or click on the following link to get Houston health insurance rate quotes from top-rated companies and see how much you can save. You can also get more insurance tips there.
Source by ryan@thesatellitetvguide.com
