Finding an affordable Georgia Health Insurance Plan is something that many individuals and families are attempting to do, but are faced with the fact that the costs of healthcare in the United States have more than doubled in that last 10 years and that there are increasing inequalities in the system.
One in Six people in the US have no health insurance (1 in 5 in Georgia), and at a time when the Congressional Budget Office estimates that only $956 Billion of the $2.1 Trillion spent on health care each year actually finds its way into health care services, it has never been more important than right now to find Georgia Health Insurance Cover that is easy to understand, comprehensive enough to offer good care, and yet sufficiently affordable so that you don’t break the bank having to pay the premium each month.
The COBRA Option…
If you are in the position that your job has recently come to an end then the first thing you should be aware of is that under the COBRA legislation of 1985 (Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act) you should be able to continue with the Group Georgia Health Insurance Policy that you already have for a further 18 months.
Often time group policies offer the best value for money and the greatest range of care, so if you can afford to continue with this policy then it may well be your best option. The company who is offering the cover does have the right to ask you for 100% of the costs of the policy, plus an admin charge of 2% though. So if the policy was previously subsidized by your previous employer as a benefit of being an employee, then you may find that the cost of the policy will jump up in proportion to the amount you were previously paying.
The Individual Georgia Health Insurance Option…
If you are in generally good health and have no pre-existing medical conditions then you may be able to find an Individual Georgia Health Insurance Plan that will suit your needs.
Often these come in different flavors and offer more choice than most other policies, but they may cost more than large group health insurance policies, which tend to come in at the cheapest price.
However, in comparison to small group health insurance policies they tend to compare quite favorably and often are actually cheaper for comprehensive medical policies.
According to the Kaiser Family Foundation 20% of the population of Georgia have no health insurance (that is almost 2 million people without cover), whilst the average monthly cost of individual Georgia Health Insurance premiums was $220 a month in 2010.
If you consider that the basic minimum wage rate in Georgia is $5.15 an hour, then a person on minimum wage in Georgia is working on average one week in four simply to afford to pay his or her insurance premiums.
Because health insurance does take up such a large percentage of the average person’s pay packet, it only makes sense that you should take every possible step to compare all of the different options before finally deciding which is best and securing your cover.
You should be sure to get a large variety of different Georgia Health Insurance Quotes and explore all of those different options when it comes to getting cover, as any time spent on researching the best health care deals will very quickly be rewarded in the form of lower premium costs and a better health care experience.