Thursday, May 07, 2009

Health Benefits for the Unemployed

Whenever we get a doctor bill, I can't help but read through all the charges, and then I'm very, very thankful that we have insurance. This is something that has been bothering me for a while, though. Because we have insurance, we don't just get a percentage of our medical bills covered, we also get discounts off the original cost for the services. For instance, Jeffrey recently had to have an MRI on his wrist because he hurt it playing basketball. In the end they told him he's just developing arthritis because of the time he broke it several years ago, and that was the end of it. They didn't even do anything for him. The original cost for the MRI (and related services) was somewhere around $2500. The discount, not what the insurance paid, the discount, was almost $1000. Then the insurance paid their part, and what we had to pay was more than I really wanted to pay, but at least it wasn't the entire $2500.

What bothers me is this, what about people who are unemployed and who don't have insurance? Do the people who can least afford it have to pay full price for medical care? No insurance to pay part of it and no discounts? That just doesn't seem right, but until now that's just the way it was.

Now discount health benefits are available directly to the individual through http://transitionalbenefits.com/ - for less than $20/month. Benefit packages offer telephone access to a physician from any phone, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, prescription drug discounts, vision care discounts, and discounts on dental care. These are the same discounts that until now had only been available to large groups based on volume. Not having medical insurance no longer means having to pay full price for necessary medical care.

If you are currently between jobs, self-employed, or without medical insurance for whatever reason, visit http://transitionalbenefits.com/ to see if they offer a package that is right for you.