If you have no insurance coverage for your children there are a variety of plans available through your state that can help you get kids health insurance for you children.
Health insurance is important for your children. Kids health insurance is a priority and you need to be sure that you have adequate coverage for your children. Many times your children will be covered on the insurance plan of a parent, whether they have a group plan through work or an individual plan. If your kids have no health insurance coverage at all you need to investigate the options that you have for kids health insurance. You never know when your children will get sick or have an accident that requires health care so you need to find insurance for them right away if they have none.
Health Insurance for Your Children
If you have no insurance coverage for your children there are a variety of plans available through your state that can help you get kids health insurance for you children. Depending on your income you may be eligible to get either low cost kids health insurance or even health insurance for your children at no cost to you at all. Many states are working with other organizations to help parents ensure that children do get the health care coverage that they need to keep them healthy.
What Type of Health Insurance is Best for Your Kids?
These are some different types of coverages that you should understand if you are comparing health insurance for babies, children, or adults.
HMO: HMO plans use a network of medical service providers in order to help control costs and make access to medical providers simpler, but they require members to use that network of medical providers for almost all medical services in order to get them covered. Typically, network restrictions are waived for emergencies.
HSA: These are high deductible major medical insurance policies that work with a health savings account that might help earn tax deductions and lower the cost of medical services.
PPO: These plans also use a network to help control costs, but they will cover non-network medical services too. They just cover out-of-network health services at a lower amount, so they will end up costing more.
Health Insurance Plans for Children:
There are a number of affordable health insurance plans for children which are both publicly and privately funded.
Medicaid
Similar to CHIP, Medicaid is a federal program administered at the state level to provide health insurance coverage for preventive care in doctors’ offices as well as hospital visits, medical screening and treatment of various health conditions, vision care and dental care. Medicaid is designed to provide health insurance benefits to low-income families and individuals. InsureKidsNow.com indicates that each state has its own eligibility requirements and list of benefits, but coverage usually extends to pregnant women, infants and children up to age 21 who meet the state’s income qualifications. Generally, Medicaid is generally open to children of families living at or below the federal poverty level.
Private Insurance
Even if your employer does not offer a health insurance plan through work, you may still be able to enroll your child in an affordable group health insurance plan. Many public and privates schools, daycare justifys, clubs and camps offer open enrollment in health insurance that is designed to provide coverage for your child throughout the year. UnitedHealthcare.com offers a K-12 plan to insure children from kindergarten through grade 12. The plan offers a low yearly deductible and affordable rates along with immediate coverage upon enrollment, 24-hour coverage and an unrestricted choice of doctors and hospitals. Check with your child’s school, sports teams or other organization to see if a group health insurance plan is available.
CHIP
CHIP is a program funded by the federal government that each state administers. It provides health coverage for American kids under age 19 in working families who qualify based on their parents’ income. CHIP is often helpful for families with incomes too high for Medicaid, but who are still having a hard time affording health insurance.
Each state has different CHIP rules. Some CHIP programs, for example, cover pregnant women as well as parents and related caregivers (such as grandparents raising their grandchildren). Each state has its own name for its CHIP and children’s Medicaid programs, too (for instance, the CHIP program in Delaware is called Delaware Healthy Children Program; in Connecticut, it’s called the Husky Plan).