HEALTH INSURANCE By James Grindley

Why Health Insurance? 1. In America there is no free health care 2. Medical bills are very expensive 3. Everybody has to go to the hospital at some point in their lives.

Risks Covered  Certain prescriptions  Use of technical equipment  Medical operations  Time with a professional

Benefits  Assured access to health care professionals  The use of specialized medical equipment on you.  Potential for dental and optometric care for you and your family.  The knowledge that you will not get into horrible bankruptcy for a minor illness that is entirely outside of your control.

Fictional Character  Meet Phil and Martha.  Together, Phil (who works as a small town lawyer) and Martha (who works as a librarian) earn about 180,000 dollars each year.  Phil is 46 years old and Martha is 45.

Fictional Character  Phil and Martha want to apply for health insurance because they don’t want to worry about hospital costs should anything happen.  Even though they can certainly pay for most doctor visits, they want health insurance so that they can save more money comfortably for a trip to the Bahamas and not on medical bills.

Fictional Character  With the help of an insurance worker, they calculate what Phil and Martha expect their office visits will be, in-network and out-network care costs, copayments, deductibles, and monthly premium.  They find they will spend about 6500 dollars each year (500 monthly premiums) on this plan.

Fictional Character  A couple months later, Phil gets into a freak trampoline accident and gets a compound fracture in his lower leg, 5 broken ribs, a punctured lung, and severe damage to his spinal column that leaves him in a coma for 20 days.

Fictional Character  Thanks to his health insurance, Phil is able to comfortably heal with the notion that his care has been fully covered by his plan.