Health Care Options For Millennials

Posted on: 16 April 2015

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The Affordable Care Act (ACA) mandates that every adult must have health care or face a tax penalty that will grow in size each year.

While the ACA also allows individuals under the age of twenty six to remain on their parents' insurance plans, those that have reached that age must find their own affordable health care coverage from places like Meekins Insurance Services.

What options are available for health care coverage?

Many millennials, who age out of the option to remain on the parents' health insurance, choose to be uninsured. The tax penalty for being uninsured is far less expensive than most insurance policies, and younger people tend to be healthier with less need for medical care.

However, there are other options that will satisfy the government mandate as well as provide health insurance coverage for this group. These include:

Health care through an employer

This type of coverage is the most popular type of health insurance in the US, but it may not be an option for some workers. Although the ACA mandates that employers offer health care for full time employees, many millennials perform contract work, which is temporary and not considered full time work.

Inn addition, the ACA also mandates specific types of coverage that must be included in every insurance policy, which causes the price of employer based insurance to be unaffordable to many millennials.

Health care through state exchanges

The ACA also mandates that each state must offer health care plans through an online state exchange. Individuals can choose from various plans offered by private insurers through the exchanges, and they can receive subsidies to help with insurance premiums if their income is below ACA guidelines.

Expanded availability of medicaid, which provides free health care for low income residents, is also available through state exchanges, but the income levels must be only slightly above the poverty level.

Catastrophic insurance

This type of health insurance pays only for serious sicknesses or injuries and has a very high deductible (the part of the bill that the patient must pay). The ACA requires that it cover some routine medical care such as annual checkups and some screenings, but it cannot be compared to customary medical insurance.

However, this type of insurance may be a good fit for millennials. It enables them to fulfill the ACA requirement for buying health insurance, and provides a safeguard against future financial ruin from high medical bills if a major medical event occurs.