Broadly, there are two reasons to have health insurance:
• Health insurance supports you if you get sick • Health insurance helps you avoid getting sick to begin with Let’s look at each of these reasons in more detail.
Health Insurance as a Safety Net
It’s important to have health insurance as a safety net. If you unexpectedly get sick or injured, health insurance is there to help cover costs that you likely can’t afford to pay on your own.
Health care can be very expensive. It can be an enormous financial burden. Surgery, emergency care, prescription drugs, lab work, scans, and examinations – these sorts of costs can add up very quickly. They can even be high enough to cause individuals to go bankrupt, or to turn down care that they need but can’t afford out-of-pocket.
But, with health insurance, you’re not facing those costs as an individual; there’s an insurance plan helping you cover the costs, and help you navigate the confusion of medical billing.
Let’s face it, medical bills aren’t the sort of thing you want to be dealing with while ill, injured, in a hospital bed or the emergency room. It’s smart to make difficult financial decisions ahead of time, by getting health insurance before you get sick.
Preventing Illness
The other reason it’s important to have health insurance is that it makes it easier for you to keep from getting sick in the first place.
Having health insurance makes it easier for you to access – that is, find and pay for – routine and preventive health care. This includes:
- • Annual checkups
- • Vaccinations (flu shots, MMR, etc.)
- • Blood tests and lab work
- • Scans and screenings
- • These all play a role in keeping you healthy, and diagnosing any illness you might have as soon as possible.
More, health insurance helps cover the costs of managing any chronic conditions you might have, such as diabetes, heart disease, or depression. Health insurers typically offer disease management programs for these kinds of conditions. They can also point you to specialists and other resources that can help. That makes it easier for you to keep on top of everything and stay healthy.
Routine and preventive care is especially important where children are concerned. Kids, infants, and pregnant mothers all need regular medical care to keep them healthy and thriving. Early intervention prevents problems down the road, and can even save lives.
And it isn’t just about physical health: health insurance typically covers mental and behavioral health care, as well.
