Do you not have health insurance? You should change that as soon as possible.
Going without health insurance can have huge consequences on your personal finances. Healthcare costs can already be high for the average American who has health insurance — without that insurance, the costs are outright daunting. According to the non-profit KFF (formerly known as the Kaiser Family Foundation), 85% of uninsured adults admit that healthcare costs are very/somewhat difficult to afford in comparison to 47% of insured adults. These results were found in the KFF’s Health Care Debt Survey.
Needing treatment for a health issue could land you with some serious medical debt. The threat of medical debt could push you to make some unhealthy decisions for the sake of your finances. You might forego or delay medical treatment because the costs are outside of your means. This isn’t a great plan.
You should get insured. Read ahead to find out how to get started.
Take Advantage of the Open Enrollment Period
You can enroll for a healthcare plan through the Affordable Care Act marketplace to finally get access to essential coverage. But you can only do this during the open enrollment period! The open enrollment period begins on November 1st, 2023, and ends on January 15th, 2024. After January 15th, you won’t be able to enroll — you’ll have to wait until November to try again.
Join Your Spouse’s Benefits
Does your spouse have a healthcare plan through their workplace? Then, you could be added to their plan! This would grant you many of the same healthcare benefits that they have had access to throughout their employment.
Sign Up for Medicaid
Medicaid is the biggest source of healthcare coverage in the entire country. Medicaid provides free or low-cost medical benefits to groups that may struggle to afford a regular healthcare plan. Adults with a low income, seniors and people with disabilities are all groups that are eligible to sign up for this type of coverage. If you’re eligible for this coverage, and you can’t afford a plan through the ACA, sign up for it as soon as possible.
Medicaid does not have an open enrollment period. You can sign up for it at any time of year.
Beyond Health Insurance
In addition to getting health insurance, you should take some other steps to manage your future healthcare costs.
Get a Dental Discount Plan
Dental services are often exempt from healthcare coverage. To make your dental services a little more affordable, you should sign up for a dental discount plan. A dental discount plan can reduce your treatment costs by 10%-60%.
Get a Prescription Discount Card
Sometimes, your medical prescriptions won’t be covered by your health insurance plan. In that case, you could use a prescription discount card to reduce the final cost at the register. You could get a discount of up to 80%.
Build an Emergency Fund
You’re going to have to pay for some medical expenses out of pocket, whether you have an excellent healthcare plan or not. You’ll have to cover insurance deductibles and copayments. And, of course, there will be medical treatments and services that are exempt from your plan, like vision care, dental care and prescriptions. So, to make sure that you can handle these medical expenses outside of your insurance, you should start putting together an emergency fund.
An emergency fund is a collection of savings meant to be used for urgent, unplanned expenses. So, if you have to get a round of antibiotics after suddenly contracting an infection, you can use your emergency fund to cover the costs.
What if you don’t have enough in your emergency fund? If your fund is still new, and your savings are low, you could look into the website CreditFresh to see whether you qualify for a personal loan. If you do qualify for a loan, you can submit an application and wait to learn about your approval status. You just might get approved for the borrowing solution, which you can then use to cover your emergency expense in a short amount of time.
Don’t leave yourself vulnerable to medical costs. Get health insurance. Protect your health and your finances at the same time.