Alternatives to Obamacare

Alternatives to Obamacare Health Insurance Plans

Health insurance is an absolute necessity, and Obamacare offers health insurance plans. But there's a problem: For a growing number of Americans, Obamacare is simply not affordable.

What Happened

Being unable to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act outright, The current administration has been chipping away at many of the Affordable Care Act premium containment components. One of these cost containment measures was the individual health insurance mandate. The mandate required everyone eligible to purchase insurance, or incur a government fine. The rationale was simple: If everyone participates, the medical bills generated by people who are sick would be offset by the premium payments of those who are well. This essential component of the ACA legislation has been removed, financially crippling the ACA concept. Allowing healthy individuals to opt out of purchasing an ACA plan makes the financial health of the ACA unsustainable. The result is a portfolio of health plans that is continually increasing in cost, and financially out of reach for a large swath of consumers.

The good news is, ACA health insurance plans are not the only health plan options available to you. There are other lesser known options that may be the perfect fit for your needs.

Obamacare Alternatives.

Healthcare sharing plans / Faith-based health plans

Increasingly, families across the nation are making the switch to a lesser-known healthcare option: healthcare sharing plans. Healthcare sharing plans, (also known as faith-based health plans, faith-based health insurance, or healthcare sharing ministries), are one of the fastest-growing healthcare options in the nation, but chances are, you've never heard of them. Below, we'll walk you through some of the important information you need to know about this fast-growing healthcare option.

The advent of healthcare sharing plan.

Healthcare sharing plans (faith based plans), have grown exponentially beyond what anyone could have possibly imagined, when such plans were exempted from the Affordable Care Act health plan requirements. At the time, the exemption was a way to sooth objections from conservative leaning congressmen who had reservations on the passage of the ACA. This exempted niche, is now a fast-growing segment of the health plan industry. From all appearances, this trend will continue well into the foreseeable future. What was once a fringe idea, limited to devout Evangelicals and rural churches has found acceptance with a wide swath of the American populous.

Good to know: Learn to Negotiate. Want to reduce your medical bills? Don't be shy. One of the best ways to lower your healthcare costs is to negotiate with your doctor prior to receiving treatment. Be upfront. Your doctor already knows the projected cost of your treatment, and there's no harm in asking him how much you will be expected to pay. When you receive your estimate, don't just accept it outright. Instead, work with your doctor or healthcare provider to see if you can haggle it down. Often, you can cut a deal with your healthcare provider if you simply ask. Setting up payment plans or promising to pay in cash may help to lower your costs, but these aren't your only options. Speak with your healthcare provider to see if they offer any unique savings options for people in your situation.

How do these faith-based plans work?

To put it simply, healthcare sharing is about like-minded people voluntarily coming together to share the burden of medical expenses. Healthcare sharing plans are typically faith-based, meaning the core concepts are based upon religious beliefs. However, in most cases, consumers do not need to be affiliated with any religious group, or be religious at all, in order to purchase a faith-based health plan. Faith-based health plans are not considered insurance and are not regulated by the department of insurance.

These plans are designed to accomplish the same fundamental goals as traditional health insurance:

Help people maintain good health by offsetting the costs of health care access.
Assist people with the cost of medical bills.
Protect people from catastrophic financial loss due to major medical expenses.

The mechanics.

The workings of faith-based health plans offered by various entities are quite similar. Each month all the members pay a set contribution or "share" amount. This contribution is based on the health plan style they have purchased. Other factors that may contribute to what the contribution will be are age, gender, and health history. Contributions are placed into a pool and managed by the healthcare sharing company. The funds are "shared" with members who have immediate medical bills, according to their chosen plan and company guidelines.

Good to know: Take advantage of free screenings. Every community has health fairs that offer free screenings for diabetes, HIV, high blood pressure and other maladies. By law, ACA-compliant insurance plans offer a number of screenings with no copays. These screenings can save you hundreds of dollars.

Advantages of Faith-Based Healthcare Sharing Plans.

Because Faith-based health plans do not fall under Affordable Care Act regulations, there is enormous flexibility in plan structure. This is one of the factors that contribute to a lower monthly premium when faith-based health plans are compared with traditional health insurance plans with similar benefits. Another contributing factor to lower premiums is the comparative lack of bureaucracy within entities that offer faith-based health plans. Insurance companies in the U.S. have had over a century to build up a virtual mountain of bureaucracy. The stifling bureaucratic excess is invariably passed on to the consumer, in the form of high plan premiums. Also, in many cases, the lack of bureaucracy, translates into your physician, medical facility, or hospital being paid much more quickly for services provided. Consequently, medical providers generally like health care sharing plans.

Disadvantages

One big advantage of an ACA backed plan is you cannot be declined coverage due to health issues. Healthcare sharing companies can choose to decline coverage to any individual due to medical issues or history. Also, certain ACA plan benefits and protections are mandated by law. Some benefits, like maternity, for example, may be very important to you. Your faith-based plan may not offer it.

There are also lifetime maximum benefit limitations with most any faith-based health plan. ACA plans have no such limitation.

For these reasons, faith-based healthcare sharing plans are not the perfect alternative healthcare plan solution for everyone. Whether or not a faith-based plan makes good sense, depends upon your medical and financial circumstance. Be certain to understand benefits and limitations thoroughly, before purchasing any faith-based plan, or traditional health insurance plan.

For more information on Faith-Based / health care sharing ministries, please contact us directly.

Good to know: Starting around their first birthday, kids should get twice-yearly checkups from the dentist, says Keith Morley, DMD, president of the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry. Preventive care, nips problems in the bud before they become more costly. You should also talk to your dentist about getting sealants for your child's molars. (Sealants are a liquid plastic material applied to your child's back teeth to prevent them from decaying.) Many insurance companies cover the cost, but even if they don't, get them anyway: They'll probably save you money in the long run.
courtesy of Parents.com

Short Term Health Insurance

Yes, short term health plans are insurance plans. However the plan structure, enrollment guidelines and cost of short term health insurance is so different, considering short term insurance as an alternative health insurance option is warranted.

So, what is short term health insurance?

The first thing to do is define short term health insurance. There are two parts to this: What short term insurance was, and what short term insurance is today.

Initially, short term health insurance was designed just for short term situations. As the name implies, it was a health insurance plan with a short term duration, which ranged from several months to a year. This type of insurance was for individuals who needed temporary medical insurance or could not afford traditional health insurance. It was used mostly by employees who frequently changed jobs, employees waiting for their group health insurance plan to kick in, students going out of state to college, or young adults searching for their own insurance because they were no longer covered under their parent's plan.
Insurance coverage was strictly for hospitalization. Doctor visit benefits, preventative services, or prescription drug benefits, were unheard of.

Things have changed. There are short term health insurance plans that now offer doctor visit copay benefits, preventative services, prescription drug benefits, and more. Some of these plans can provide coverage for up to three years before a new application is needed. For these reasons and more, short-term health insurance is becoming an ideal health insurance solution for a growing number of U.S. families.

Short term health insurance plans are affordable, and the plan benefits have vastly improved from what was offered in the past. However, short term health insurance is not for every circumstance. It lacks several of the guaranteed benefits that are part of the Affordable Care Act portfolio of plans.

For more information on health plan options that are available to you, give us a call.

Other articles:
Explaining the Growth of HealthCare Sharing Plans.
5 Strategies For Reducing Medical Bills.
Resources