Health Insurance for Children Only in USA and Canada

Health insurance for children only is needed if the company in which you work for doesn’t offer an extended insurance for your children. Health insurance is one of a citizen’s basic needs, though, and it is much more important for families who depend on a minimum wage.

They will tend to delay visiting doctors because of the expenses, only to find the sickness get worse and the expenses get much more expensive. With a good health insurance, they will be able to visit the doctor sooner without worrying about the money, and therefore they can be cured before the situation gets worse.

Nowadays healthcare insurance for children only covers one, several or all of the followings: physician visit, hospitalization, surgeries, therapies, prescribed drugs, preventive health care, laboratory tests, mental health, some of the medical equipment, rehabilitation costs, dental and vision care. It is one of the things you need to pay attention to when you apply for a health insurance.

Another important thing you need to be aware of is the type of the reimbursements, whether it is fee-for-service that will cover a certain amount of your medical expenses, HMO that will cover only a medical expenses in a certain hospital or doctor, PPO that will reimburse you more for using their network or POS that require a private doctor but will still cover some of your expenses if you use other doctors.

Open Enrollment on Healthcare Insurance for Children Only

Healthcare insurance for children only is a plan that is available to children under 18 year-old, without needing a parent or a guardian listed in the plans. Because the nature of the condition is that the parents are of minimum wage and don’t get the child’s insurance covered by their work company, parents tend to delay applying their children for healthcare insurance until the children get sick. This, in turn, causes insurance companies to decline their application due to pre-existing medical situation.

In 2016, the Patient Protection and Affordable Act prevent the declining, but the worry about the parents delaying to apply for healthcare insurance is still there. A win-win solution is made, then, that an annual or biannual enrollment will be taken place to allow parents to enroll their children to the child-only plans without fearing rejection.

The time of the enrollment depends on the state in which you live in. In Maine, New Jersey, New York, Oregon and Vermont, health insurance for children only is available all year long. Colorado, Columbia, Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Washington each decide a specific time for the enrollment, usually during the month of January or July.

California makes a specific rule that the enrollment should happen on a child’s birth month. An application submitted at any other time will be accepted, but with a higher premium.

Choosing Healthcare Insurance for Children Only

The first thing you should do when choosing a healthcare insurance for children only is to do a little research. With the amount of information you can get on the internet, you shouldn’t have any difficulties collecting what you need. Choose several companies with the best profile and reviews.

Take a note at their policies regarding the coverage and the reimbursement type you want. Compare the prices, the amount of reimbursement and other costs between them to choose the cheaper one.

Another option for cheaper solution to healthcare insurance is by purchasing HDHP (High Deductible Health Plan) and HSA (Health Saving Account). They have a much lower premium than the individual plans and you can get some tax deduction from whatever you contribute to HSA.

The money grows and withdraws tax-free, as long as it is for a medical purpose. The last thing to remember is that healthcare insurance for children only is state-based, and you can contact your state office to find more information regarding the companies and policies for your needs.