North Carolina Family Health Insurance - Why a High Deductible Health Plan May be Right For You
When it comes to your family, you would do anything to make sure they were well cared for. You buy homeowners insurance, life insurance, and car insurance to cover your possessions and to provide for them should anything happen to you. Making sure you have enough North Carolina family health insurance coverage is just one more way to protect them and your financial health in case of illness or accident. But choosing the right family health insurance means working through a maze of options. One type of insurance, a High Deductible Health Plan, may provide an affordable way for your family to buy the insurance you need without draining your bank account.
A High Deductible Health Plan (HDHP) is a type of catastrophic coverage characterized by a deductible that his higher than most traditional North Carolina family health insurance plans. For 2010, the minimum deductible a family health insurance plan can have is $2400 to a maximum of $11,900 per year. Each year the IRS modifies and releases the limits to reflect the cost of living changes. These types of plans offer many benefits with the main one being they have lower premiums than other types health plans because you are accepting more responsibility for the cost of your health care.
Another advantage to signing up for a High Deductible Health Plan is that you can use it in conjunction with a North Carolina Health Saving Account (HSA) which provides a number of tax advantages. A HSA can be funded with pre-tax dollars which can lower your overall tax liability. Unlike a Flexible Spending Account where funds are lost if you do not use them at the end of the year, any money left in a HSA at the end of a year gets rolled over into the next year. For 2010, the maximum yearly contribution you can make to a HSA for a family health insurance plan is $6,150.
If your family does not need medical care that frequently and you are all fairly healthy, then a High Deductible Health Plan may be the best health plan you could buy. You will benefit from lower premiums. However, should something catastrophic happen, such as contracting a deadly disease, your out-of-pocket expenses will be limited to the amount of your deductible. This means you won’t have to worry as much about racking up a large medical bill. To help you determine which North Carolina family health insurance is best for you, work with a licensed health insurance agent who can explain your coverage options.
