If you are currently looking for a job you may notice that there aren’t very many companies offering insurance benefits. If you look even closer, you may notice the same plans offered aren’t covering as much as they used to. This poses a big problem for graduates or graduates-to-be. With all the media coverage on the importance of health insurance. Many graduates are finding themselves stuck and they do not know what to do.
Living without health insurance does remove a monthly payment, but leaves room for lots of risks. With medical costs being a leading cause of bankruptcy, it often stressful when considering your options. Unfortunately, it doesn’t help that a good portion of graduates are joining many other Americans in unemployment. The ideal situation would be to find a job with health benefits but with the struggling economy, those aren’t easy to get.
A great alternative to more expensive, long-term health care plans is short-term health insurance. With short-term health insurance, graduates can get the coverage they want at a price that they can afford.
But before selecting short-term health insurance consider a few tips that are just for college graduates.
According to HealthCare.gov – there are some essential tips to consider. We put them in a top-10 list to help add to their advice and also make it easy to get the coverage you need.
- You may get coverage from your college or university.
- You may get insurance from your job, but if you don’t, you still have options for health coverage:
- If you are under 26, stay or get covered on a parent’s health insurance plan — even if you’re married, not living at home, financially independent, or have an offer of insurance through a job.
- Buy your own health insurance plan and compare individual alternatives
- Checkout Health Insurance Marketplace. If you’re just starting out and not making much money, you’ll probably qualify for savings — which may make your monthly health insurance bill less than your cell phone bill.
- Evaluate a “Catastrophic” health plan — an affordable way to protect yourself from worst-case scenarios.
- Evaluate individual and short-term medical insurance plans offered through GradGuard.
- Outside the yearly Open Enrollment Period, you can enroll only if you have a life change that qualifies you for a Special Enrollment Period. Turning 26 and dropping off a parent’s insurance plan, losing health insurance for any other reason, getting married, or having a baby are just a few changes that let you enroll in the off-season.
- Important: If you don’t have any health coverage you may have to pay a penalty. There’s no special exception for age or student status.
- Get coverage through Medicaid or CHIP
- In some states, Medicaid covers all adults below a certain income level. If you qualify, you can enroll anytime. See if this applies to your income and your state.
- In all states, Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) provides health coverage for some individuals, families and children, pregnant women, and people with disabilities.
