Monday, May 17, 2010

What is the benefit of having two (2) health insurance??

i want to know what the benefits are of having 2 health insurance? i have nmever gotten insurance covergae frommy work since my husband has a really good health insurance from his work. if i have 2 insurance do i still have to pay copays? with dental coverage for instance, if the primary insurance (the one from my husband) pays 80 percent of the cost, will my second insurance cover the remaining amount? what good will having 2 health insurance do for me. is it even woth getting two?? thanks so much for any input/ information..

What is the benefit of having two (2) health insurance??
Coordination of Benefits is what you are referring to, and usually if your primary insurance will pay under that plans certificate, then your secondary insurance will not, if your primary insurance denies the claim, then your secondary insurance may consider the claim under that plans certificate.





Is it worth getting two insurances? Depends, if your primary coverage has exclusions that your secondary will cover then yes. Otherwise, it isn't worth what you will be paying in additional premium to an underwriter.





It may be a better idea to supplement your current insurance, example, if your plan has a deductible you can purchase an indemnity plan that may help with your OOP (Out Of Pocket) expenses.





If you want 100% coverage with nothing OOP for Hospital or Medical, you will be pleased to know that at 65 when you are on Medicare, you can get a Medicare Supplement that will cover the gap!





Until then.... well.... Good Luck!


 


 
Reply:usually if you have 2 ins. then you pay nothing. The primary pays most then the secondary pays the rest. If you don't have to pay much for your insurance at work then yes it is great to have 2 insurances because it will save you money.
Reply:If you're not paying to have the two insurances, why not take them both? BUT, think about this before you decide:





1. Whose birthday falls first in the year - yours or your husband's? (If he's January, and you're February, that kind of thing.) Whomever has the first birthday in the year, regardless of who is older, holds the primary insurance. (If one plan is kinda crappy in comparison to the other, make sure it's not the primary plan.)





2. Some providers are not set up to bill secondary plans, so you might have to submit things (like your copay, etc.) to the secondary yourself. Some providers may ask you to pay the copay, etc. first and get re-imbursed by the secondary plan. (BUT, check the secondary plan - some will ONLY pay providers, not patients, in which case, make sure the provider knows so they don't make you pay.)





3. Some plans have exclusions - meaning, they won't pay beyond what the primary plan pays. Usually, at least in medical insurance, if the primary plan pays 80%, the secondary will pick up the 20% - but not always.





Secondary plans are helpful in the cases of the primary plan not covering something. There are some plans that do not cover preventative care (why, I do not know. IMO, it's dumb to shell out tons of $$$ if someone gets sick, vs. a smaller amount to keep 'em well!) So, if that's the case, it is a benefit to have two plans. Just make sure they compliment each other in the way of one covering what the other doesn't instead of both not covering the same thing, and you should be okay.





Good luck!
Reply:If you have health and dental thru your work and your husband also has it thru his, for you your insurances will be primary for you and his will be secondary and for your husband, his insurances will be primary for him and yours will be secondary for him. Which means just let everyone you go to which insurance is primary for you and him and they should take care of sending it out to the appropriate places. The benefit, if you can afford it, is that no you will not have any copays because the remaining balance, copay or not gets billed to the second insurance which picks up the rest. My husband and I just had a baby, I have blue cross thru my work and he has another insurance thru his. For all my appts and delivery, everything was billed to blue cross first and then to his insurance, so we never payed a dime of the whole pregnancy or delivery. That was pretty nice. I hope this was helpful and not too confusong. Basically the Dr's offices handle all the technical details you just have to inform them what inusrances you have and which is primary and secondary, that is unless they get it screwed up, which I have had to call a few times to let the know they should be billing to the other insurance company.


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