Is Your Family Health Insurance Sufficient For Heart Attack Treatment?
When you purchase health coverage for your family, it is critical that it covers the most important health care services effectively.
Many adults are at risk for heart attacks.
If worse comes to worse and you suffer from a heart attack, the speed of care is critical.
A recent study from the Journal of the American Medical Association found that people who are uninsured or under-insured are significantly more likely to delay treatment.
They are over 45% likely to delay a hospital visit for over six hours after a heart attack, as opposed to 39% of those with good health insurance.
Cardiologists state that the best chances of successful intervention occur as little as two hours after a heart attack.
Outcomes worsen after six, and then twelve, hours.
Some people may delay treatment because they believe that prohibitively high co-payments or deductibles--or worse, the entire cost of the hospital stay and procedure - will put an undue burden on their loved ones.
Sadly, that decision may come with tragic consequences - such as life-long disability, or even death.
Does your family health insurance plan sufficiently protect you in these circumstances? The authors of the study say that the nearly one-fifth who considered themselves under-insured had HMO or fee-for-service plans, which can be difficult to handle when it comes to reimbursement.
For example, some health maintenance organizations may refuse to pay for a hospitalization unless it is within their provider network.
Time to figure out those rules is time that could be better used on health care.
Affordable health insurance reform does reduce a family's out-of-pocket cost somewhat, but the 20% to 30% often left is still out of reach for some household budgets.
Many adults are at risk for heart attacks.
If worse comes to worse and you suffer from a heart attack, the speed of care is critical.
A recent study from the Journal of the American Medical Association found that people who are uninsured or under-insured are significantly more likely to delay treatment.
They are over 45% likely to delay a hospital visit for over six hours after a heart attack, as opposed to 39% of those with good health insurance.
Cardiologists state that the best chances of successful intervention occur as little as two hours after a heart attack.
Outcomes worsen after six, and then twelve, hours.
Some people may delay treatment because they believe that prohibitively high co-payments or deductibles--or worse, the entire cost of the hospital stay and procedure - will put an undue burden on their loved ones.
Sadly, that decision may come with tragic consequences - such as life-long disability, or even death.
Does your family health insurance plan sufficiently protect you in these circumstances? The authors of the study say that the nearly one-fifth who considered themselves under-insured had HMO or fee-for-service plans, which can be difficult to handle when it comes to reimbursement.
For example, some health maintenance organizations may refuse to pay for a hospitalization unless it is within their provider network.
Time to figure out those rules is time that could be better used on health care.
Affordable health insurance reform does reduce a family's out-of-pocket cost somewhat, but the 20% to 30% often left is still out of reach for some household budgets.
Source...