What to do if you lose your Employer Provided Health Insurance

Filed in archive Health on February 12, 2006

Look for Large Professional OrganizationThere are quite a few organizations that you can join if you have lost your Health Insurance.

Obviously you look for one that fits in with your profession as there could be rules for qualifying. Make sure that it is large so that you are not able to be hit with huge policy increases unless everybody is hit with them. This brings some predictability to costs. If you search and are not able to find one then try this:

Blue Cross/Blue ShieldIf this is the alternative you choose, then use the strategy of buying the highest-deductible policy that they offer. The down side to this is that every time you move to another state you lose their coverage and must reapply and re-qualify.

If you happen to get sick in-between moves, you lose the insurance. Make sure you shop around though for other major medical, high-deductible policies in your state. All states have their own laws and the costs and benefits offered differ tremendously.

Small group policies are very risky as they can respond to someone who may get extremely sick and hike the policy with no limits to how high they can raise them.

Do you consider yourself an Evangelical Christian?

This is actually the best way to handle the situation from the cost point-of-view if you qualify as an evangelical Christian. This is not actually an insurance program from a legal definition; rather it's a broad program where you share medical expenses with others.

Those I have talked to that use this say they have dramatically reduced their costs when they switched to this option. For more information check out this site.