Health Insurance Quotes and the Value of Looking Ahead
Posted September 15, 2013 | Filed under topic Health Insurance Information
Trying to predict the future of your health can seem like an impossible task, but making the effort can help in reducing future medical bills while researching health insurance quotes. You can look at your own past, but those of relatives may play an even larger role.
What’s at Stake: Chronic Conditions and Prescriptions
Some of the most popular prescription drugs are statins that help reduce dangerous LDL cholesterol levels which can lead to cardiovascular disease. However, they are also still only available as brand name prescriptions which can be expensive for people with health insurance policies with limited medication coverage.
With Angelina Jolie speaking out about her genetic testing and it revealing her risk for potentially deadly breast cancer, that disease has also come into the spotlight. For many people the thousands of dollars required for testing may not be economically feasible, but preventive treatment for cancer and diabetes can all become expensive. For those who are diagnosed with them, expect significant costs for monitoring and limiting the impact of those diseases.
Uncles, Aunts and Health Insurance Considerations
Even the most healthy individuals may have skeletons in their family’s medical history closet. Many conditions such as obesity or cardiovascular disease run in families. If you know that relatives have been diagnosed with conditions that require ongoing treatment, you should look into health insurance quotes and policies to find out what it would cost if you were to eventually face the same disorders.
Keep in mind that the further back you go in your family’s history, the more guesswork plays a role. Someone who was considered a “character” may have in fact had a mental health problem that was not diagnosed decades ago. Making a list of potentially expensive diseases that have plagued your family will give you a better idea of estimating your long-term healthcare costs and whether or not health insurance can minimize that.
Your Own Habits and Experiences
Not everyone in your family does obstacle races like Tough Mudder, but since you do and train by running, you could be at risk for knee and ankle injuries. Oddly enough, athletes are also at risk for certain heart arrhythmias as well. So in trying to figure out what coverage you should get, it’s not just your family medical history, but also your own. If you struggle with your weight and think it may be difficult to truly get into excellent shape then cardiovascular disease and insulin sensitivity could be a real prospect for you in the near future.
Whether it is you or your family, choosing quotes based on monthly premiums should only be one consideration. Health insurance is not designed to protect you at this instant, but down the road. Trying to create a forecast for what is likely to happen should help you pick what coverage will minimize your healthcare costs overall.