What One Really Pays These Days to Have Health Insurance

Posted by Uswah Andleeb
2
Oct 22, 2012
575 Views

For the over 49 million Americans currently living in this country without health insurance coverage, the thought of even being able to afford health insurance is something that most cannot even envision. With the current state of the economy, many are more focused on making ends meet than having the

luxury of possessing health insurance coverage. And for the ones fortunate enough to have health insurance coverage, being able to decipher as to what insurance benefits they truly are eligible for is feat

in itself.

 Let’s say for discussion purposes that one is suffering from headaches and neck pain with radiating pain and decides to schedule an appointment with a physician. At this point in time, they decide to call Inline Health & Wellness located in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida and schedule an appointment to meet with

one of the chiropractic physicians on staff. Prior to seeing the doctor, they would like to know what they will be financially responsible for outside of what their insurance plan will cover. When they contact their insurance company to determine what benefits they have under their current health

insurance plan, they are advised that they have a $3,000 deductible at which they currently have not satisfied any portion of the deductable since this is their first visit to the physician this year.

 

This is where things my get confusing so one needs to really pay attention here and read each sentence slowly and in its entirety. As per their insurance contract, they have a $3,000 yearly deductable with 20 visits to a chiropractor allowed per year; however, what the insurance company has failed to disclose to

the individual is that the maximum allowed reimbursement for chiropractic services is $50 per visit. So, this translates in that if this person were to satisfy their $3,000 deductable, they would have to receive at least 60 chiropractor visits. Obviously, this may be considered excessive treatment that may not be

warranted, but the point here is that basically the individual would be paying out of pocket for every visit to the chiropractor without the insurance company ever paying a single penny. When patients learn of this lack of, or “no insurance coverage”, they often question why they are paying for insurance

in the first place if the insurance company never pays for any of the treatment they receive and they end

up paying the entire bill.

 Some may think that this is not possible but unfortunately, this is happening more and more these days. This may be especially attributed to the fact that the current unemployment rate this country is just over 8%. With unemployment rates so high, there are less people having insurance coverage through

employment. This reduction in employer sponsored insurance plans in turn means less insurance premiums being paid to insurance companies so insurance companies are motivated to increase the

policy deductibles to satisfy the needs of employers and employees in an effort to lower increasing policy premiums. However; in the end as demonstrated here, the only end result here is those having the insurance not only paying the premiums but also paying all the doctor bills.

Dr. Evan J. Slatkin has been in practice for over 16 years currently is the CEO of Inline Health & Wellness located in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida where they offer chiropractic services, physical therapy fort lauderdale, acupuncture, massage therapy, skin aesthetics and hormone replacement therapy. Feel free to contact Dr. Slatkin via email at eslatkin@inlinehealthandwellness.com via telephone at (954) 491-4437 or visit us on the web at http://www.inlinehealthandwellness.com.

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