Having health insurance is important for a number of reasons.
Of all the types of insurance you can buy, health insurance is considered one of the most important. Unless you are independently wealthy, paying for medical treatment without the assistance of a health insurance program can be severely detrimental to your financial well-being. Without insurance, your access to health-related programs and services may either be delayed until you can accumulate necessary funds or forgone entirely.
Considerations
Medical treatment costs continue to increase at an exponential rate. Without health insurance, you may be unable to afford services and procedures necessary to improve the quality of your life. You will be forced to delay treatment until you have amassed a lump sum large enough to cover the price of your procedures. Very few medical facilities offer payment plans, and those that do require exceptional credit scores and charge interest rates that further increase costs.
Medications
Pharmaceuticals can carry significant price tags, especially drugs that are new and have no generic equivalent. Health insurance plans typically contain prescription drug provisions that set your costs to pre-defined levels regardless of the actual retail price of the medication. If you have no insurance, you must pay for drugs in full at the time they are dispensed. This could lead to excessive expenditures, most notably if you must take a regular monthly maintenance medication to treat an ongoing issue.
Benefits
The majority of Americans are covered under managed care health insurance programs, which rely on the existence of a pre-defined network of physicians and facilities contracted with the carrier. If you require specialized care, you can seek treatment from any doctor or hospital within your insurance company's network. This feature allows you to obtain services from the best providers available, without additional costs. If you have no insurance, treatment provided by more highly acclaimed expert physicians will undoubtedly cost significantly more.
Children's Care
If you have children, health insurance is considered extremely important. The cost of routine annual check-ups and vaccinations can be excessive, and these procedures are not only mandatory for public school enrollment, but vital to the well-being of your children. Having multiple children compounds the already exorbitant expense of simply protecting your family against childhood illnesses and disease.
Potential
Most health insurance plans include a plethora of ancillary services provided at no additional cost to covered members. These services typically include unlimited telephone consultations with qualified medical personnel who can answer personal questions, as well as access to other programs intended to improve the quality of your life and increase your knowledge regarding healthy decision-making. Many insurance carriers also offer ancillary services that include non-medically related programs like attorney consultations and financial planning advice. Without health insurance, your access to these benefits would be restricted unless you paid potentially significant fees.
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