Parents getting old and no health insurance coverage. what are my options here?!
Question:
Parents getting old and no health insurance coverage. what are my options here?
Answers:
Your best option would be to visit a local independent agent. This person knows the market in your area and can find the best plan for your parents, plus they don't charge you any extra for the service. A high deductible plan will keep the premium lower.
If it is less than two years until they're eligible for Medicare you can get them a short term medical plan. These plans won't cover the small stuff but will give them catastrophic coverage.
Be very wary of medical discount plans. These plans are not regulated by the department of insurance so you have little recourse when you have a problem with the plan. The people that sell these plans do not need a license so most have little or no knowledge of insurance. If you are tempted by one of these plans be sure to get a list of doctors first. If they don't give you a list until after you've sign up consider it a scam. Call the doctors on the list to find out if they still take the plan and if they're accepting new patients(most don't even know they're listed, or if they do know they've requested to be removed). It does you little good if the nearest doctor is 400 miles away. The residents of one state found out how good a plan is when there are no local doctors, and the plan was banned from the state. You can read about this here: http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/wes...
Here are more informative links about these plans: http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/consu...
http://insurancefraud.org/discount_healt...