President | Founder, CLM Insurance Group, Delray Beach, FL
Peace of mind and most importantly, protection against financial loss due to an unexpected illness or accident. Health insurance is actuarially designed to minimize risk exposure for the insured in the event of healthcare costs from services rendered.
In addition to off-setting your exposure often times plans will include day 1 benefits such as office visit co-pays, prescription drug co-pays and wellness benefits.
It will depend upon what level of health insurance you purchase. Assuming you purchase major medical health insurance, it will now have to be in compliance with the Affordable Care Act. That said, what you may be purchasing can range from a "Platinum" level plan with very low out-of-pocket expenses for virtually all areas of health care to a "Bronze" plan that may not provide you any coverage at all until you have paid for more than $6000 in health care expenses out of your own pocket. One thing that is consistent across the four levels of health insurance plans now available (Bronze, Silver, Gold & Platinum) is that a wide range of preventive health care services will be covered at 100% with no cost sharing by the subscriber.
Yes, you are also buying "peace of mind" that in the event of a serious illness or injury that your personal financial exposure is limited to that $6000+ number each year (which will increase in future years) and you also are now buying guaranteed access to health insurance with no pre-existing condition exclusions or limitations. In the abstract I think everyone agrees that these are good things. However, depending upon your income level what you may be buying may or may not be viewed by the individual as affordable to them. Having recently completed the first open enrollment season under ObamaCare it has surprised me how many people, even ones qualifying for substantial subsidies of their monthly health insurance premiums, still elected to remain uninsured. Clearly, the perceived value proposition of what you get from buying health insurance has a very subject answer that varies greatly from one person to the next.
Co-Founder, TermInsuranceBrokers.com, Goldenzweig Financial Group, Las Vegas, Nevada
The notion of getting peace of mind with insurance comes from the direct purpose of buying insurance - protecting yourself from a catastrophic financial event by shifting the risk to a third party (the insurance company). When it comes to health insurance, you know you're only exposed to such a high amount in a given year - known as an annual out-of-pocket maximum. Other than your premium, you will not pay more in healthcare expenses than this amount in a given year. A great example of when you might encounter a very expensive financial event for health insurance purposes is surgeries.
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In addition to off-setting your exposure often times plans will include day 1 benefits such as office visit co-pays, prescription drug co-pays and wellness benefits.
Yes, you are also buying "peace of mind" that in the event of a serious illness or injury that your personal financial exposure is limited to that $6000+ number each year (which will increase in future years) and you also are now buying guaranteed access to health insurance with no pre-existing condition exclusions or limitations. In the abstract I think everyone agrees that these are good things. However, depending upon your income level what you may be buying may or may not be viewed by the individual as affordable to them. Having recently completed the first open enrollment season under ObamaCare it has surprised me how many people, even ones qualifying for substantial subsidies of their monthly health insurance premiums, still elected to remain uninsured. Clearly, the perceived value proposition of what you get from buying health insurance has a very subject answer that varies greatly from one person to the next.