The Benefits of Individual health plans
As you search for individual health plans to meet your needs, don't overlook the potential for a private insurance company to provide better individual health plans
with less expensive premiums than you can get through your employer. While most insurance plans that are provided under an employer's umbrella do provide good rates, it is possible that you can find a company that provides a better insurance plan at a more competitive rate, especially if your employer is paying little of the cost of premiums for your insurance plan.
There are two reasons that most insurance policies purchased through an employer are less expensive. The first is that the employer gets a better rate because of the number of people who are enrolled in the plan. The insurance company typically offers a significant break because of the volume of business the employer provides. The second is that the employer typically picks up a portion of the premium amount - sometimes a significant portion. This means that the employee is paying only a fraction of the cost of the premium. But if the employer is not paying a portion, or if the employer is a small business that was unable to negotiate a good rate, the insured might find that individual health plans
offer a good alternative.
Benefits is another reason that individual health plans might be better than the group health plan offered by an employer. For example, an individual who has a family history of cancer might want to find an insurance provider with a comprehensive cancer plan. Many group plans offer cancer coverage at an additional fee, but that fee could drive the cost of the coverage up significantly. Finding another insurance company with different cancer coverage might actually be better for the employee than purchasing the cancer coverage as an addendum to the regular policy offered by the employer. Other mitigating factors might carry similar consequences, leading to the need for individual health plans.
There are other reasons that individual health plans might be better than an employer based health plan. If you plan to work at a particular job for only a limited amount of time, you might consider individual health plans instead of joining the group plan. Remember that leaving a job will also typically end your employer-based insurance coverage. That means that you'll be searching for new insurance anyway, starting over with deductibles, waiting periods and pre-existing illnesses. In this case, having individual health plans means your healthcare won't be compromised when you do change employers.
