Accident Health Insurance Supplements For Individuals And Families

Accident health insurance supplements are kind of under the radar but incredibly practical. It’s a type of supplemental accident coverage sold in the indemnity health insurance market that’s guarantee issue. It’s not insurance but a personal accident indemnity.

In short, indemnity insurance plans compensate policy holders for a suffered loss (hospital or doctor bill).  So consider these plans as a type of compensation insurance. Many educated medical insurance consumers like indemnity’s because they know upfront what’s actually going to be payed in the event of a hospital bill. Their are no health questions and everyone is accepted until around age 70.

Accident indemnity insurance pays a fixed rate for whatever ails you up to the policy max per injury. The policy is sold as membership plans with monthly dues instead of monthly premiums like traditional PPO’s. Association membership dues range from $24 a month for an individual and $35 for families.

Members have access to any licensed doctor, emergency room, hospital, clinic, or urgent care facility. This ridiculous freedom to choose your own doctors and hospitals turns a lot of heads. Less rules is good. Combined with the well priced membership dues and focusing on insuring the area of highest probability (emergency room), it’s pound for pound one of the most realistic and clever types of personal injury insurance plan.

I know how annoying it is to hunt around for prices in between all the fluff, so here’s the monthly rates upfront to save time. Here’s the most competitive rates from the leading personal injury insurance policies. These are the lowest rates I’ve found so far.

I will be monitoring personal accident insurance suppplements in the United States and be updating this website when I find better plans. You can apply to this company on the right side of the site. My phone number is on the online application so feel free to call me with any questions.

EMERGENCY ROOM INSURANCE SUPPLEMENT PRICES AT A GLANCE:

Individual- 5,000 benefit: $24 dollars a month

Individual- 7,500 benefit: $29 dollars a month

Individual- 10,000 benefit: $36 dollars a month

Family-5,000 benefit: $35 dollars a month

Family-7,500 benefit: $41 dollars a month

Family- 10,000 benefit: $47 dollars a month

Call With Questions Or Help With Online Application

(847) 970-7737 – Illinois Office

CLICK HERE TO APPLY ONLINE TO THE INDUSTRIES LEADING PLAN

At the root of these plans is the fact they are an association based membership organization that offers solid discounts to individuals and families in the United States. Accident health insurance supplements have many different names depending on who’s sales brochures you come across. Other names include Accident Medical Expense Benefits, 24 Hour Accident Coverage, Accident Medical Coverage, Accident Supplemental Benefit Plan, Supplemental Accident Coverage, Emergency Room Insurance Plan, Limited Accident Medical Expense insurance, and Personal Injury Insurance plan. There are literally hundreds of different discount insurance packages that offer these accident insurance plans through different agencies. An interesting discovery was that most of these are underwritten by Guarantee Trust Life Insurance Company who’s been around for 70 something years. Guarantee Trust Life Insurance Company is located at 1275 Milwaukee Avenue Glenview, Illinois 60025.

Guarantee Issue insurance benefits is a niche within the health insurance industry. As the name suggests, everyone who applies for personal accident insurance qualifies. There are no health questions, underwriting, or waiting periods with this style supplement. Automatic acceptance through age 64 or 70 is typical.

One consistent theme from all the sales brochures is the member can choose any doctor, clinic, ER, or hospital. Since this is a injury insurance plan, it’s primary focus is on emergency room coverage. Since accidents are for the most part random, gaining immediate access to all emergency rooms, surgeons, hospitals, and urgent care facilities is huge. This type of world wide 24 hour accident coverage is straight up and practical.

A smart way to look at health care is insuring areas of higher incident which is the ER. Emergency room bills resulting from accidental bodily injuries is where a lot of medical insurance deductibles are being met. Emergency room care tends to be higher probability then other areas. Generally, Major Medical Insurance companies don’t pay anything until the high deductible is met. Over the years I’ve noticed that when ever my clients end up paying these huge deductibles it’s from a emergency room visit due to a bodily injury. X-rays, MRI’s, and in or outpatient surgery is what usually follows.

A typical complaint about high deductible health plans (HDHP) is “it doesn’t pay anything.” What people are trying to say is they have to pay out of pocket for any type of bodily injury once they head to the emergency room. So it doesn’t matter if you have a major medical insurance plan with a 5 million life time max. If you break some bones or tear a ligament and need to get MRI’s, X-rays, or even surgery, that comes out of your pocket unless the deductible has already been satisfied by a previous claim that calendar year. Major medical carriers do offer a “emergency room rider” that you can tack onto your catastrophic plan when doing the application.

These riders reduce your out of pocket exposure by insuring the deductible from ER claims. In my opinion if your going to pick up a ER plan it’s better to get a stand alone because it’s more portable and can supplement any future carriers you’ll switch to. Switching health insurance companies is a lot like playing musical chairs because rate increases happen every year and if you have a big claim you could be stuck with that carrier (unless the rules really do change in 2014).

EMERGENCY ROOM INSURANCE SUPPLEMENT BENEFITS AT A GLANCE:

-Ambulance Expense.

-Hospital Emergency Care.

-Doctors visits (inpatient and outpatient).

-Doctors fees for surgery.

-Anesthesia Services.

-Prescription Drugs.

-Dental treatment for injury to sound natural teeth.

-Registered nurse.

-Miscellaneous hospital expenses during stay, outpatient surgery under general anesthetic, operating room costs, lab tests, x-ray exams, anesthesia, drugs (excluding take home type drugs) medicines, and physical therapy services and supplies.

-Hospital room and board, general nursing care, up to the semiprivate room rate.

Benefits can be paid directly to the member or the provider. Some plans always pay benefits directly to the member and some only pay the providers. Typical face values of personal accident insurance plans are $2,500, $5,000, $7,500, and $10,000. Benefits are payed per injury or per occurance, however you want to phrase it. The covered charges are only payed for bodily injuries and not sickness. Deductible of $100 dollars is typical. So the plan picks up the bill 100% up to the benefits max chosen.

So if some one picks up a $10,000 Principal Sum plan they can expect to pay around $36 a month. A family $10,000 emergency room insurance plan would be around $47 a month. Bigger the family, bigger bang for the buck. Younger dependents on a family policy tend to have more emergency room visits. Young kids and broken bones go hand in hand.

Some policies cover kids league sports like Little League and High School Football. Organized or team sports are covered unless it involves professional level or college athletics. Children can usually stay on the family plan until age 26. Not all plans are equal with this benefit regarding kids sports so look for a policy that specifically states that children’s league sports are covered.

If you do have a injury insurance plan in place here’s some tips:

1. Know which are the best local Emergency Rooms in your area. If the nature of the injury allows you time to think which hospital to go to, knowing the best hospitals in your area ahead of time is wise. Ask your friends and family which hospitals have the best reputation if you don’t already know.

1. If you do get injured and the hospital recommends surgery, figure out who the best local surgeons are by asking around. If the accident health insurance plan pays benefits for any doctor, you might as well go to the best local surgeons. Physical therapist in your area will know who the best surgeons are. Especially if the doctors work with professional athletes in your state.

1. Increase your current health insurance deductible to the face value of the accident policy. If you already have a $10,000 accident medical coverage plan increase the deductible with your current major medical plan to $10,000. This could cut your monthly premium in half meanwhile insuring the deductible with the accident supplement. Basically, your insuring the deductible in the ER which makes sense since that’s were a lot of high deductible health plans are met.