Today's Money: Buying Your Own Health Insurance

Transcript

Event Date(s): 10/17/2011 | Event Location(s): New York City, New York, United States | Description: GFX: Header "Preferred Provider Organization" GFX: Supers "Medical Care From Doctors/Hospitals On Insurance Company's List Of Preferred Providers Results In Claims Paid At Highest Level" GFX: Header "HMO Plans" GFX: Supers "Services Provided Through Network Of Providers That Contract With The HMO" GFX: Header "HSA-Eligible Plans" GFX: Supers "Special Bank Account That Allows You To Save Money - Pre-Tax - To Be Used For Medical Expenses" GFX: Header "Indemnity Plans" GFX: Supers "Visit Most Any Doctor/Hospital & Insurance Pays Set Portion Of Total Charges" GFX: Header "Buying Your Own Health Insurance" GFX: Supers "Mix-And-Match: Consider Buying Separate Plans For Family Members Based On Individual Needs", "Covering Your Adult Child: New Law Allows You To Keep Adult Children On Your Family Policy Until They Turn 26", "Shop Around Once A Year: Make Sure You're Not Paying For Benefits You Don't Use & Are Getting Ones You Really Need As You Age", "Compare Options: Determine How Monthly Premiums & Coverage Differ Between Plans", "Licensed Agent: Can Recommend Different Plans Based On Personal Health & Coverage Needs" GFX: Header "Buying Your Own Health Insurance" GFX: Header "Key Issues to Consider" GFX: Supers "Emergency Fund", "Children Require Frequent Medical Care", "Amount Spent on Health Care Last Year", "Pre-Existing Medical Conditions" CNBC's Personal Finance Correspondent Sharon Epperson joins Al Roker live in Studio 1A. AL ROKER: Sharon, good to see you. SHARON EPPERSON: Good to be here, Al. ROKER: OK. First of all, we've got a--we've got 13 million people we're talking about who are looking for health insurance. EPPERSON: At least 19 million. And about 45 percent of those people are actually self-employed or small business owners. And one out of four, their employer may offer coverage, but they can't afford it or they may not get coverage from their employer. ROKER: OK. We want to review the different kind of plans. First of all the PPO? EPPERSON: The preferred provider organization, that's your PPO, and that's where you have a network of doctors that you can choose from. If you choose one in that network, you're probably going to get a higher amount of coverage. ROKER: HMO? EPPERSON: The health maintenance organization. A lot of people know about the HMOs. You have to stay in the network usually to get the best services there. ROKER: And then the HSA-eligible plan. EPPERSON: Health savings account. That means that you're actually going to be able to get something like a 401(k) account that you can put money into pre-tax to pay for your health insurance needs. It's a high-deductible policy. And that's why if you're young and healthy it's probably a better plan for you. ROKER: And then if you like a lot of freedom and flexibility but you maybe are going to be paying more, you're looking at these indemnity plans. EPPERSON: Exactly. That gives you the broadest amount of flexibility in who you can choose for your doctor. Of course, you're going to pay a portion for your insurance needs there. ROKER: All right. You've got some important tips for us. First of all, you talk about mix and match. What does that mean? EPPERSON: This is good for anyone. You know, most people think, `Well, I have to stick with one insurance plan for my entire family.' That may not work depending on your individual needs, your spouse's needs, or your children's needs. You may want two plans or maybe even more to try to figure out what's best for your family. ROKER: So you need to bundle, like say, your dental plan, your doctor plan, stuff like that? EPPERSON: Some plans will allow you to do that. Some you need to do separately. You need to see what works best for you. ROKER: All right. Covering your adult child, which is kind of interesting. EPPERSON: Well, that's something that's changed with the new health reform law. You can cover your child up to age 26. It's not always the best idea, though, if your child is out of state because then you may not have that network of providers that will allow you to have the lowest cost for your coverage. So you want to look into that. And if your child is between 19 and 25, they may be able to get an individual policy on their own. ROKER: And when you're buying for your family or just yourself depending, you want to look around once a year? EPPERSON: You have to look around once a year. That's the best rule of thumb. You know, if you're employed and you get the open enrollment period, that is once a year. If you're buying on your own, do the same thing because things may change in your life. You may get more prescriptions, chronic illness comes up that you have to have prescriptions for. Or if you're pregnant or you think you may become pregnant... ROKER: Mm-hmm. EPPERSON: ...you want to look at the maternity benefits. Things may change. You want to keep tabs on that. ROKER: And then does it make sense kind of just, in a sense, take a yellow--a yellow legal pad and compare all the options side by side? EPPERSON: You absolutely want to do that. And most people look at the monthly premiums, but you all was--also want to look at what is covered in terms of doctor visits, X-rays, emergency room, prescriptions and all of that. And ehealthinsurance.com is a website that can do that for you, so you don't necessarily have to have a legal pad. ROKER: And if you really like your doctor, your health care provider, you've got to take that into consideration that he might not take your insurance. EPPERSON: Exactly. That's something you really want to look into. Look at the doctors that you have a relationship with. Make sure you try to get in those plans. ROKER: Now this I thought was kind of interesting. There are licensed agents who can help you with this? EPPERSON: You can get--you can find a licensed health insurance agent. Ehealthinsurance.com is one place that you can go. You can also go to the National Association of Health Underwriters, nahu.org, and also the Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of America, trustedchoice.com. Those are three websites you can go to. We have them on today.com as well, so people can go there and look for it. ROKER: There are also some key issues. You say an emergency fund really important. EPPERSON: It's very important. Because if you have--particularly if you have a high deductible or just a lot of out-of-pocket costs, you want to make sure that you're able to cover this. So having a solid emergency fund is going to be very important for you if you're buying your own insurance. ROKER: And if your kids need frequent medical attention? EPPERSON: Pay attention to that, because again, that's your out-of-pocket costs. Those doctor visits, you're going to want to make sure perhaps that you are able to have a low-monthly premium to deal with that. ROKER: And you need to look at what you spent on health care last year. Ms. EPPERSON: A lot of people don't go back and look. See what has changed. Maybe someone in your family started to get more prescriptions and that has changed the amount of money that you're putting to health care. That happened to us this year. So now we're going to have to look again at our health policies to see which insurance plan works best. ROKER: And what about pre-existing conditions? Ms. EPPERSON: That can be difficult. That's where the health insurance agent can really help you figure out what kind of plan might be best for you. ROKER: All right. Sharon Epperson, a lot of great information. Thanks so much. EPPERSON: Sure.