Shopping for Affordable Health Insurance is Easier Online

Thanks to the Internet, it’s easy to find a wealth of important information online; thousands of sites offer to sell you an affordable health insurance plan with just one or two clicks. This means that buying a health insurance plan for you, your family or your business is simpler than ever.

But getting health insurance quotes or buying a health insurance plan online requires more discernment than other online purchases. Insurance purchases require an exchange of a great amount of personal information, making it important to find a trustworthy insurance company or broker.

To begin with, it’s a good idea to research the company that will be receiving your personal information. Find one that is up-to-date, utilizing the state-of-the-art privacy technology. Find out if they sell, trade, or give away your information to anyone; the health insurance advisor or counselor you’re working with should know if the company engages in these practices. Be certain you read the ‘Privacy Policy’ disclosure, which covers the confidentiality of all of your data. Reputable companies will have a ‘Contact Us’ link, usually on the top or bottom of the page, to answer any questions or concerns you may have.

Another very important task is to learn if the person guiding you through your insurance options is a licensed health insurance agent. These agents can provide you with personal advice as you make your decision for affordable health insurance; they can also guide you through the application process. A licensed health insurance agent must follow strict guidelines mandated by the insurance companies they represent and your state’s department of insurance. It’s also very important to obtain the state license number from the health insurance agent assisting you.

Don’t forget to ask for any phone numbers you may need later, even if you don’t think you’ll need to call the agent back. Most credible sites will not try not to hide any part of this information. The easier it is to find this information, the better—you may have questions later that you haven’t thought of. And on the phone, courteous service is a good indicator of the quality of any health insurance resource.

One final feature to look for in your search for insurance online is a seal of approval from a professional organization. You should only request affordable health insurance quotes from web sites endorsed from an association like the Independent Health Insurance Agent Association.

Rising Liability Insurance Rates Hurt Family Practices

It is becoming increasingly difficult for family practice physicians to even obtain medical liability insurance let alone afford it. More and more insurance companies are deciding not to underwrite any medical liability insurance. Literally, in most states there are only few who will offer it. The increasing rate of malpractice lawsuits is to blame for this. Juries are awarding multi million dollar settlements and it is forcing many doctors to close the doors on their family practices.

The problem is concurrent with other problems; doctor A closes his family practice so all of the patients rush to doctor B, now Dr. B is on overload and his patients are unhappy because of lengthy wait times and the vicious cycle continues. It has already been obvious as most family practices no longer deliver babies due to the ever rising costs of OB insurance. Also, most have stopped performing any surgical procedures because they simply can not afford the insurance premiums.

This does not work like auto insurance either, regardless if a doctor has had a malpractice lawsuit against him or not, the premiums remain the same as well as whether or not the carrier will even write the policy. This is certainly posing a problem for family practice doctors or doctors in general who have to limit the scope of their services. Doctors are literally becoming afraid of assisting high risk patients because of the consequences and ramifications that could follow.

If something does not change soon what will happen is people will not be able to get health care when it is most needed and it is due to two factors: availability of liability insurance and affordability. Another result from this is that most family practices who were always about to receive discount health insurance reimbursements such as Medicaid and such, no longer can because they can not simply afford to. Liability insurance companies simply claim that there is zero stability in the market of liability insurance due to the puerile lawsuits and the astronomical awards that juries are handing out.

This is causing family practices and doctors everywhere to watch every move that they make to avoid being sued. It is further raising medical costs because a doctor is running countless and sometimes unnecessary tests to ensure his medical security. All of these possible unneeded tests take money away from those who really need medical treatment. Now guess who ends up having to foot the bill for all of this? The government and the taxpayers.

Then, this process affects employers because they no longer want to provide employee insurance or cut the insurance that they do offer because rates climb so high that they can not afford it either. The only foreseeable way to get the system back on track is to begin with eliminating the numerous amounts of petty lawsuits. Beginning with this will perhaps get the system back on track and instill some validity back into America hence, achieving the ultimate goal which is to provide everyone with quality health care and instill the values of family practice.