If You Think Health Insurance is Too Expensive, Think Again

A staggering 20% of adult Americans feel that they are not able to afford adequate health care according to the latest information released by the CDC (Centers for Disease Control). So, are you one of the more than forty million people who cannot sleep comfortably in their beds at night for fear of not being able to cope with the cost of treatment in the event of illness or accident? More importantly, have you got to be amongst the forty million?


The report of the CDC which was put out in 2007 and scrutinized health across the United States looked in some detail at several aspects of health care and showed amongst other things that:

1. Ten percent of people cannot presently pay the cost of prescription medicines.

2. Ten percent of people put off medical treatment as a result of the price.

3. No fewer than nearly 1 out of 3 young people aged between 18 and 24 do not have a normal source of medical treatment or health insurance.

4. Ten percent of people aged between 45 and 64 do not have a normal source of medical treatment and roughly fifty percent of these people suffer from hypertension, a serious heart condition or diabetes.

5. One out of 5 individuals below the age of 65 are not insured for at least part of each year, with most being uninsured throughout the 12 month period.

A lot of people are lucky enough to get health cover for themselves and their families through schemes run by their employer, though rising costs are forcing more and more employers to reduce their employee health care plans or to do away with them altogether. There are however also millions of people who do not qualify for cover through their employment and who have to make their own arrangements. It is this second group that frequently considers that health insurance is simply too costly.

So should you dismiss the idea of buying medical insurance out of hand merely because you consider that it costs too much? Health insurance plans come in all shapes and sizes and, while a traditional indemnity fee-for-service plan can be very expensive, there are a lot of affordable alternatives.

In very simple terms health insurance plans fall into roughly two categories comprising disability income policies and medical expense policies. The first provides compensation for your loss of income if you are unable to work because of disability while the latter give you cover for the cost of medical treatment as the result of injury or accident.

Each of these forms of health insurance can be written as a single plan or separately and individual policies can further be broken down to provide cover for specific areas like accident coverage, hospital care, major medical expenses, basic medical expenses and much more.

Furthermore, cover can now be provided by not just traditional insurers, but also by several group organizations, companies such as Blue Cross and Blue Shield, HMOs and PPOs, each of which will provide a wide range of policies with payment options to suit just about every pocket book.

If you are frightened by the belief that you cannot afford to pay for health insurance then think again. You might not be able to afford a fully comprehensive plan covering every possible eventuality but the odds are that you will be able to find a plan that will give you sufficient cover to provide you with some peace of mind.