While health insurance costs continue to go up and to make matters worse, it seems Americans across the board are confused about health insurance.
Having little confidence in your ability to make good health insurance decisions can make managing your healthcare a stressful situation.
From understanding healthcare jargon to cost implications, making strategic healthcare decisions is imperative to your wellbeing – not to mention your financial health.
With more and more Americans losing employer health insurance and having to enter the Marketplace, you can no longer sit back and disengage from the process of making health insurance decisions.
In fact, having a “low” healthcare literacy can ultimately lead to you paying more than you should for your healthcare.
That alone should be motivation enough to make a change.
The challenges
When you’re facing significant consequences that come out of purchasing health insurance – like illness, disease management and finances – the decision can be daunting.
Understanding health insurance and managing benefits are additional challenges. So is knowing the kind of expenses that are covered under your health insurance plan and using reimbursement and payment tools.
If you’re struggling to manage your responsibility for health insurance, you could be using more services than you need, experiencing higher hospitalization rates, and neglecting to use preventive services.
If you understood how the benefits worked and what was covered, perhaps you’d take advantage of preventive services that would help ward off illness and disease.
As a result, you’d spend less time and resources reacting to illness or dealing with chronic diseases due to neglecting your healthcare.
With little understanding, however, you’ll be paying out more money to deal with these issues than you would have just taking care of the basics.
That’s how important it is to understand health insurance.
Your healthcare choices in action
For example, if you choose a plan with a high deductible but don’t understand that preventive care is free, you’ll avoid going to see the doctor – thinking that you’ll have to pay for it until you reach your deductible.
Additionally, if you’re unfamiliar with how prescription drug costs work, you may not know that you can shop around for prescriptions. If you assume that every pharmacy changes the same amount for medications, you’d miss the chance to save by going with another pharmacy, or an online pharmacy.
Turning it around
If you’re ready to take an active role in your healthcare and gain confidence in your ability to understand health insurance, it’s time to take charge. Work with a trusted health insurance professional who can walk you through the ins and outs of health insurance so you can choose a plan that fits your health and financial needs.
InsureOne Benefits is happy to help. Give us a call to get on the confidence-building journey of understanding your health insurance options.