Health Insurance and Prescription Tips if You Just Lost Your Job

Posted under Health Insurance by admin on Sunday 22 February 2009 at 11:47 am

If you have just lost your job and also your medical insurance then this could put you in a bind. You need to get medical coverage because if you do not have it then the costs of a doctor and prescriptions can make you go broke. Most people lost their jobs around the holidays which put them in a financial position where they couldn’t even afford artificial Christmas trees because the COBRA costs were so high.

COBRA is outrageous for medical coverage. The last thing you want to do is pay for this medical cost because they are making a killing off of you. COBRA is more about making money than taking care of your medical needs and you should never pay the costs of what they are offering you to continue your company medical benefits. You can get another type of medical coverage so your family can afford things like artificial Christmas trees and gifts to put under the prelit Christmas trees during the holidays.

The first thing you need to do if you have children is get them on a free medical plan. If you have lost your job then the state will most likely put them under Medicaid and they will be covered for free. Don’t think that you cannot qualify for this coverage because your income has to be very high for you to be denied with children. Another thing to consider is that when you qualify for free state medical for children there are many programs that will give you big discounts. Some phone companies like Terracom will only charge you $1.99 a month for your phone bill just because you qualify for free medical for the kids. Medicaid will not cover you as an adult. The government doesn’t care about you if you are able to be working but they will take care of the children’s medical costs and all prescriptions will be free.

The next thing you need to do for medical if you just lost coverage is to shop around with medical insurance companies. The benefit here is that you are only looking for you and your spouse and not family coverage. Individual medical health plans are very affordable. You can find a plan paying around $200 a month for the two of you. This is hundreds cheaper each month than you would pay with COBRA.

Another thing you need to consider is prescriptions. You may not be able to afford the best medical coverage or a plan that pays for the majority of the cost of prescriptions. Many stores like Wal-Mart have prescription programs where all of their prescriptions only cost $4 each. You do not need medical insurance to take advantage of these discounts. Always fill prescriptions in places like this to get the best deals possible. Prescriptions can be expensive and in most cases, the medical insurance co pay to fill a prescription is much higher than what you would pay the $4 out of pocket. In a case like this you don’t want to use your medical insurance but pay cash.

Article source: http://www.acesshealthcare.com/blog/
health-insurance-and-prescription-tips-if-you-just-lost-your-job/