• Short Term Health Insurance Blog

  • Saturday, February 04, 2012



When purchasing a short term health insurance plan, some of the terms you will come across are benefit maximums, co-insurance, and deductibles. As you might have rightly guessed, these terms specify your portion of the payment, if the need arises.

Let's see if we can unravel these terms in a simple manner. The benefit maximum is the maximum payable amount for each condition. For fixed benefit plans, the benefit maximum is specified for most conditions separately. For example, a surgery may carry a maximum limit of $4,000, and a day's stay in the hospital, $1,500. comprehensive benefit plans usually have maximum benefits mentioned only for certain medical problems.

The deductible is the amount that you opt to pay before any insurance kicks in. This is actually very advantageous to the insured, as tweaking the deductible can increase or decrease the amount payable. If you think you can afford up to $1,000 for a medical illness, choosing that as your deductible will reduce the premium payable.

The co-insurance is the percentage of the amount that the plan will pay, after the deductible. A co-pay, on the other hand, is a set amount that the insured agrees to pay--say $20 on every doctor visit. The most common co-insurance is an 80/20 arrangement, where the insurance plan pays 80% of the costs, and the insured, 20%. In most temporary plans, the insurance company pays 100% of the covered costs that exceed a certain set maximum. For example, after the first $10,000 in expenses, the plan may pay 100% of covered expenses.


Many a time, people who sign up for short term health insurance are doing so for the first time, and have no clue how to go about receiving the benefits. So used are they to long-term insurance, that they are not quite sure how and when the benefits actually bear fruit.

This is also true for new immigrants whose first insurance plan is the short term health insurance plan. Getting the benefits is very simple, and while temporary insurance usually features deductibles and co-insurance, the principle behind it is the same as that of long term insurance.

In the Secure 12X3 Short Term Insurance plan, for insurance, the insured is responsible for the eligible expenses until the deductible is met. That means that a $300 treatment for injury will be entirely borne by the insured (deductibles under the plan are $500, $1000, $2500, or $5000).

After the deductible, the plan pays for 80% or 50% of the covered expenses, up to $10,000 of covered expenses, and 100% thereafter, up to the plan maximum. A list of covered expenses and the maximum allowed amounts for certain conditions are mentioned in a plan's schedule of benefits. In most cases, the hospital accepts the insurance card given, making the transactions cashless.


When you are out of a job and are looking for one, everything seems to have changed for the worse. Apart from the anxiety of getting a new job, managing finances seems very stressful. The smart way to lessen one type of concern—that is health insurance, is to purchase a short term health insurance plan to take care of the expenses arising of an unexpected illness or accident.
However, you might find that being out of a job is not such a strain on your lifestyle as you thought it would be. Maybe you have savings that can take care of daily expenses, or maybe your spouse is shouldering the expenses.
Okay, so you may not have as many extras as you enjoyed earlier, but you find that you and your family don’t really miss the weekly restaurant dining, or the weekend breaks to unwind. On the other hand, you find much more time to spend with your family, and that might be a blessing in disguise.
To continue enjoying this gift of time, you will need to make a small investment in the short term health insurance which can take care of unexpected illnesses.


The ways that people pay for something that they buy are as varied as there are number of people. And it is difficult to convince a person that his way of paying is not the best. The Secure Saver short term health insurance plan tries to cater to these different preferences of payment.

Take the person who pays in installments. This person would prefer that small payments month by month makes better sense than paying the entire amount at one go. This makes sense if the money is already invested elsewhere and is earning interest. This also means that you can terminate the insurance at any time through a written notification.

The one time payer prefers to not have the monthly payment hassles. There is a benefit for making a monthly payment in the Secure Saver plan as there is a special reduction in the payment. This option is good especially if you know the period of insurance coverage you need.

The monthly payment can be made through checks, money orders, credit cards or through automatic bank withdrawal. The 12-month plan is ideal for monthly payments, while one-time payments are tailored to the number of days that you need the insurance.



Before buying a short term health insurance plan, it is smart to know what is covered. This means that you will be fully informed about the terms and conditions of the plan, and if you happen to have any of the illnesses that are covered, you can be sure of hassle-free treatment.

The illnesses that are covered by most temporary insurance plans are some of the most common ones that are likely to occur without prior notice and are not long-standing or chronic conditions. All the benefits that are extended are subject to the daily deductible and coinsurance paid. In plans where it is applicable, the $50 physician office visit copay covers the cost of the physician’s visit, and other services are subject to the daily deductible and the coinsurance.

Typically, hospital room and board charges are paid at the average semi-private room rate and outpatient and ambulatory surgical center charges are paid. Physician and surgeon services are also paid. X-Ray exams, laboratory tests and analysis are covered.

Some of the conditions covered are gall bladder surgery, knee injury or disorder and organ, tissue, and bone marrow transplants. Mammographies and pap smear tests are included, as are blood administration and transfusions.


It is very easy to take short term health insurance for granted because you are used to having long term insurance that goes on and on as long as you pay the premium, which is often simply deducted from your paycheck. For short term health insurance, however, it is easy to forget when coverage ends.

The insurance that you have bought for six months will end when the term ends, of course. But the coverage also ends at the earliest date that the premium is not paid. The coverage also ends when you become eligible for Medicare.

If you are in a state where association membership is necessary for buying insurance, then coverage ends when you cease to be a member of the association. Coverage can also end when the group master policy ends. Coverage can end if the Standard Secure Life Insurance Company decides that there has been a misrepresentation made in the filing of claims.

If there are dependents to the insurance, then the coverage for the dependents ends at the earliest date of your coverage termination, or when the dependent becomes eligible for Medicare. If the dependent ceases to be eligible for some reason, then coverage ends. Always check your specific plan for details of the end of insurance coverage.


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