In different situations, you may need temporary or short term medical insurance such as, just leave school, between jobs, not eligible for employer’s coverage, contract employee, early retirement, traveling overseas and after COBRA coverage ends.
Visitor insurance plans are made to mostly cover medical expenses while visiting USA or traveling overseas. Hospital dues raise from sickness, injury or an accident could be too much and quickly get out of control. Visitors medical insurance can eliminate the risk of unforeseen expenses during a US trip or to abroad.
Short term medical insurance for healthy people is fairly cheap in cost. People also have a multiple options from which to choose, from very basic to almost complete coverage. Few people buy insurance that help when medical problems are catastrophic in nature. Most people go with temporary insurance that covers most options and lasts from three months to one year.Effects of short-term Insurance
You will have freedom to choose doctors and hospitals you like and may have a reasonably low deductible. The insurance works in same ways as most others policies do, covering hospital care, emergencies, surgery, blood-work, x-rays and more. But if you have pre-existing diseases like HIV, cancer, heart problem etc, you may be denied coverage. That is why the insurance companies keep the low cost of these short term policies.
Disadvantages
There are some disadvantages of short term insurance. You need pre-certification for many medical services. You have to accept that the deductible is payable only once and is not required for each illness. Also, your use of the insurance in any emergency may be quoted as a pre-existing condition, which results in refusal for more than one temporary policy.
COBRA plans
COBRA or the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reduction Act was ordained in 1985 which allows employees to make their group health insurance coverage at their own expense for a specific period of time. Instead to buy temporary insurance, it is often best to continue your medical coverage through COBRA. If the 18 months or three years of COBRA coverage are about to over and you are yet uncovered, short term insurance is the best choice for you.
