Older working Americans, from middle age to just before Medicare age, can have a hard time qualifying for private health plans. This is a time when many people decide to start their own business or work on contract, but it is also an age group that is hard to insure. Just obtaining an individual or private medical plan can be a major obstacle to their dreams.
Now unlike younger people, say in their 20s and early 30s, middle aged people understand that health insurance can protect their financial lives if they should become ill or have an accident. You adults think they will live forever, and also, do not risk as many assets most of the time. However, younger people are usually easy and fairly cheap to insurance. People over 50, who are not old enough for Medicare, will cost more to cover based on their age. But beyond age, middle aged adults are much more likely to have developed some health issues.
The health issues may be minor and controlled. A little extra weight, controlled high blood pressure, and other chronic problems will not exclude them from being accepted for health insurance, but it will often cause rates to be considerably higher, sometimes 25 - 50%. More severe health problems like diabetes, even if it is well controlled, will make an applicant marked uninsurable by most major medical insurance companies. So if it is impossible to obtain a policy from an insurer, what can these people do?
Well every state in the US has some sort of program for people who are considered high risk applicants. Risks pools with guaranteed access are established in some states. However, in some cases these policies do have waiting periods for pre-existing conditions, and these policies also come with hefty premiums. Because these plans are anything but standard across the US, you would need to check with a local insurance agent or your state's insurance department. If the state program is an expensive high risk pool, I would suggest that an applicant take the highest possible deductible to keep premiums as low as possible.
Some older people have to take a part time job, even a menial job, just to get the health insurance. Then they use the rest of the time to get their business going. Or sometimes one spouse takes the part time job, leaving one free to work full time on the new business. Then when the new business has some momentum, and even has a couple of employees, they can go out and obtain their own small group insurance plan where pre-existing conditions are accepted, or feel as if they have enough revenue coming in to justify the expense of an individual health insurance plan.
However, some older applicants, who have savings and only minor or no health problems, cut their premium another way. These people have built up savings accounts, so they will pick a high deductible medical plan, usually with a Health Savings Account (HSA). A deductilbe of 5 or 10 thousand dollars may seem very high. COnsider that the actual payments for a higher deductible plan will be less, so it is valuable to use some of the savings to start an emergency fund.
HSA plans have some added advantages. Insurance premiums may be tax deductible too. The account may be used for almost any medical expense, and some of these will not be covered by typical major medical plans. Furthermore, if any money remains in the account at retirement, it can be taken withdrawn and is never lost.
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