Frugal Family Health Insurance - Dream Or Reality?

You have a family and you now would like to get health insurance for your family and have it be cost effective. Well, do not count on that if you are one of several thousands of Americans who doesn't qualify for public medical assistance or has a posh group medical plan at your job. Many say health care cost has gotten better the past few years and HMO and other managed care costs are better and lower than ever. Most of the working class America has a hard enough time paying a rent or mortgage, clothing, gas, food, and monthly bills. Who has the extra for a family medical plan? Even with a half way decent employer, you would still have to pay at least $150 per week to cover the kids and spouse. If you have no kids, the price doesn't change. The only good thing is if you add more kids the plan doesn't change then, either. What do you do if you don't have an extra $150 a week to invest in this? What are your options to provide in case of an emergency?

Many working families are now finding out they can qualify for medical coverage at least for their children. Depending on your income, even a working family can get the insurance they need. In most cases even the adults will qualify with co-pay. If not, both parents can get individual health coverage through the group rate at work and the kids can get assisted medical with the state so no one has to go with out. A family of 4 making less than 35,000 per year can qualify for these benefits. If you have more members to your family that amount increases. If you don't qualify for that program there some other options you can try. Many states have a plan right above assisted state health benefits that will give partial medical benefits for kids if you make too much for the assisted medical program. There are other types of help as well such as Catholic Charities and other local medical programs that pick up where state assisted leaves off. They can offer discounted medical coverage and free prescriptions. There is a good chance you will qualify for the emergency prescriptions and be put on a waiting list for the coverage portion.

When you have exceeded even these options, you now have three choices left. You can suck up the cost out of pocket per payday through your work policy. Save your self the aggravation and actually have some quality health coverage because the alternatives aren't really appealing. Most employers take the brunt of the cost so one could consider themselves lucky to have a policy that is only $150 per week, seeing you are only paying about 28% of the actual premium. This can feel like a costly venture, but it isn't as costly as paying for a hospital stay. There is also the truly expensive route in which you can purchase a plane straight from an agent or company for the highest cost also. You will get the exact same coverage that you would have from your job except instead of paying 28% you pay 100%. That difference is more than you can imagine. The third option is not having any medical coverage at all.

This is the trickiest and most widely used option for most Americans stuck in the middle of economic brackets. Your choices are limited here and a lot about whom you are depends on what you decide. There are those persons who utilize clinics for well and sick check ups and routine vaccinations. These facilities charge based on income, so the cost is good. The down side to this is that you are limited to who you can go to and when. These clinics aren't always available for a sick baby if they have others who need vaccines. You may have to wait a couple days. This option also doesn't cover emergency and hospital visits either. Most hospitals have a payment plan for those people who need income based payment arrangements. So you can go to places and get care at income regulated guidelines and keep you and your family safe. Then there is the second option if clinics are sparse and limited. Always go to the emergency room. They cannot deny you care because of your lack of ability to pay. Even if you never pay the bill and don't care about the credit they can never deny you. So, take the well-baby check ups at the clinic and all sick visits at the local ER. Maybe this will tip off someone to tell the government that they need to fix the working class people's options to good medical care and coverage.