How often should we review our existing plan and what should we look for?
Bob Hurley: Every one of us should take a look at our health insurance every year especially if we are presented with a significant rate increase on our health insurance. We should absolutely take a new look at the market, see what's available. The individually purchased health insurance market is extremely dynamic right now.
There are many new products coming in from some of the leading health insurance companies. Every month we are getting new products into the mix and so I would encourage you, if you have just being confronted with a rate increase whether it be on your own health insurance policy or from your small business employer, go out to the market, go out to the internet and do some shopping on your own. See what you can find on your own and what prices are available to you and then consider that in whether you want to continue on with the program you are with or if you want to make a switch. So certainly, any price confrontation you want to take in a second look at what you are doing.
Another reason to take a look at your coverage is if your lifestyle has changed for some reason. People that are going to be getting married should be taking a look at their health insurance coverage and see what are the roles for putting in a spouse on your plan and so on and then certainly, if you are married and now you are starting to think about a family, you want to go out and look at your health insurance plan, see what the coverage are for not only the maternity event that you are going to have but also for how that insurance coverage is going to work in covering your children.
For most people at a minimum, you should be looking at your health insurance plan once a year at a minimum and then I would say, more frequently if you have some of these lifestyle changes come about where you get married or start to think about a family or your job situation changes. So many reasons to take a look at your health insurance coverage but at a minimum, I think you should look at it once a year.
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