High-deductible Health Indemnity Offers Lower Premiums

High-deductible health indemnity plans can help many Americans who currently face perilous inequities in healthcare. Such indemnity typically costs less in monthly premiums because you agree to pay for your expenses up to a deductible amount. After the deductible is met, indemnity takes over with coverage for major accident or illness expenses.

These plans have the potential to save lives by donation less expensive premiums that more people can afford. That can lower the number of people who will be subjected to inferior medical care that has been exposed in multiple studies.

Information has been gathered regarding both adults and children, and regarding both illnesses and injuries that has repeatedly shown that those without health indemnity are given inferior medical care.

The Myth that Hospitals Have to Treat Everyone Equally

Among the general U.S. population, people who are uninsured are about half as likely to receive vital care services as those with indemnity, according to a systematic review of the literature by the American Thoracic Society’s Health Disparities Group.

The literature also showed that uninsured patients who are admitted to intensive care units are less likely to have invasive procedures or pulmonary artery catheterizations. Most startling of all, uninsured patients are more likely to have life support withdrawn than patients with indemnity.

“Patients in the United States who do not have health indemnity and become critically ill receive fewer vital care services and may experience of poorer quality clinical outcomes,” according to one of the review investigators, J. Randall Curtis, M.D., M.P.H. He is also president of the American Thoracic Society.

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The Dangers of Lacking Health Indemnity

To make this startling accusation, the researchers reviewed more than 5,500 citations on vital care and indemnity status. They identified 29 observational studies that described admissions and outcomes for critically ill patients who both had and lacked health indemnity coverage. Their results are in print in the May 1st issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Vital Care Medicine.

Currently, it’s estimated that as much as one-third of the U.S. population under 65 is uninsured for a part of any given year. In addition to being subjected to reduced service and discharge delays, uninsured people with distressing injuries were only 63 percent as likely to be admitted to hospitals as people with similar injuries who had indemnity.

“Although U.S. hospitals are with permission obligated to care for patients who are emergently ill, they are not obligated to be the continuing provider for medically stabilized uninsured patients,” according to Robert Fowler, M.D. He is an associate professor of medicine at Sunnybrook Hospital, the University of Toronto, and he is the lead author of the systematic review.

Fowler has touched on what may clarify why uninsured patients wait longer to be discharged. The delay may be a result of “problem in finding healthcare providers or facilities to acknowledge these patients,” according to Fowler.

“We found evidence that patients who are critically ill with lesser degrees of indemnity coverage receive fewer vital care services compared with those who have more indemnity. Developing more comprehensive programs and legislation to improve health coverage for patients who are acutely ill would therefore seem a most likely chance for investigation,” the study authors conclude.

High-deductible Health Indemnity Plans Are Part of the Solution

Not having health indemnity coverage is associated with both reduced medical care and poorer outcomes for patients.

Don’t wait for government proceedings to protect to if you are injured and get sick. Take advantage of the lower-premium tariff associated with high-deductible health indemnity plans to get the coverage you need.

Save even more by selecting a lower-premium high-deductible indemnity plot that can be combined with a Health Savings Account. With a savings account, you’ll have help to pay for any medical expenses before the deductible is met and your indemnity starts to pay.

Health Savings Accounts have an advantage over habitual savings accounts because they earn interest tax-free. If you use the account money to pay for qualified medical expenses, you also get a tax deduction. What if you don’t need the account money for medical expenses? Your Health Savings Account dollars will continue to grow tax-free, and you can withdraw them for retirement much like IRA accounts.