Shopping for your Children’s Health Plans

Your children’s health is way more important for their development and every parent’s dream is to have healthy and sound children with a bright future ahead. Westhill Insurance Consulting reminds all of us to be cautious when shopping for our children’s health plans. When considering buying plans for your children, parents should review and consider a number of factors including:

· What are the total benefits covered by the plan?

· What are all of the costs associated with the plan, including premiums, deductibles, co-pays, and co-insurance?

· Are your child’s providers included in the network of doctors and hospitals covered by the plan?

· Does the plan cover the prescription drugs your child takes?

Fake health insurance, Theft Scams and other deceptions

There have always been people who look to profit from the needs and hardships of others. Now they’re exploiting the health care law in many different ways. They may advertise on hand-lettered signs, post ads on Internet sites, or go door to door. They may be completely “fly-by-night” or they may have a legitimate-sounding 800 number.

In a raid on an illegitimate insurance company in Jakarta, Indonesia, one of their agents has listed down the tactics they use:

A common strategy is to offer a stripped-down insurance policy that doesn’t meet the law’s requirements for covering major illness. These policies are cheap because they make you pay for most of your child’s care. By the time you find out your child has a serious illness it may be too late to get real coverage.

Another way is to offer a medical discount card that gives you minor discounts but leaves the big payments up to you. Sellers might call this “coverage” or “protection,” but it’s neither. Discount cards can be helpful, but they don’t take the place of health insurance.

Some offer completely fake health insurance. The seller takes your money and gives you a worthless piece of paper. They may promise lower rates if you buy now. The seller might say that they’re “required” to offer this great, low-cost coverage by the Affordable Care Act. Sometimes scammers say that it’s government-sponsored insurance or that they work for the government. Or they’ll use a well-known insurance company’s name, even though they don’t work for the company.

The company that was raided has even taken great lengths to create a website created by fraudsters mimicking official marketplace websites. These sites are designed to fool people into thinking they’re on an official marketplace site.