Limited Benefit Plans (“Mini-Meds”): Affordable, Low-Cost Health Insurance or Not Worth the Paper It’s Written on?

As health insurance premiums continue to skyrocket, we’ve been asked more and more about limited benefit health insurance plans or “mini-meds.”  With their low, low health insurance premiums, limited benefit plans seem like the answer to the prayers of many families, affordable health insurance premiums combined with just the benefits that their likely to use in the course of a year.  But are limited benefit health insurance plans really the affordable, low-cost health insurance that people need?  Or are they not even worth the paper they’re written on?

Okay, well, here’s the deal.  Limited benefit health insurance plans are just that: limited.  If you get a limited benefit plan either on your own or through an employer or on your own, you may have health insurance, but it may be very, very limited.  Some limited benefit health insurance plans cap their benefits at as low as $2,000 dollars, which may be enough to take care of what you need in a typical year, but in practical terms means that you may be one major illness or medical emergency away from financial disaster.  If you hit your annual benefit limit, that’s it. You will effectively be uninsured for the rest of the year, so any other medical treatment, prescription drugs, hospitalizations, etc. will all have to come out of your own pocket.  Even though healthcare reform requires health insurance plans to raise their benefit limits, the Obama Administration has waived the requirement for some employers in order to keep their employees on health insurance. 

Are you on a limited benefit health insurance plan?  Tell us about it!

Related posts:

1. Limited-Benefit Health Insurance Plan (“Mini-Med”) Members To Receive Notices About Their Coverage
2. Limited-Benefit Health Insurance: Is It Better than No Health Insurance?
3. Limited Benefit Health Insurance: What Is The Lifetime Maximum of Your Health Insurance and Why Does it Matter?
4. Healthcare Reform: College Student Health Insurance Plans Continue… For Now
5. A Health Insurance Insider Shares the Ugly Reality of Health Insurance