Many people do not know that there exists a short-term medical insurance option. I'll spend a moment explaining this briefly so that you will know.

Conventional health insurance (also known as major medical insurance) is the kind that most people know about. Group health plans at work are usually of this sort. So are individual (or family) medical insurance plans. To get this kind of health coverage, you fill out an application disclosing your height and weight, your use of tobacco, alcohol, and drugs, and all your present and past medical conditions and send it in with a deposit. When the application gets to the insurance company, they carefully evaluate all the facts of your health situation and decide if they are willing to insure you and what they will charge you for health insurance; this process is called "underwriting" and can take as long as 30 days or more. They may accept your application as submitted or they may send you a counter-proposal offering somewhat different terms; you are free to accept the new terms or not. If you accept, you'll be insured. If you reject their proposal, they will give you a refund and you will not have health insurance from them.

Once the insurance company and you have reached agreement, you are in control. By that, I mean that the insurance company is stuck with you no matter how expensive it may become to provide you with the medical care you need. As long as you continue to pay the premiums, you will continue to have insurance.

The cost of conventional insurance reflects that you are in control. The health insurance company makes you pay for the privilege of forcing them to keep insuring you.

Short-term medical insurance differs in one major way. The policy has a time limit. At the end of the time limit, the insurance company can walk away from the deal. This is not calloused indifference on their part nor cruel. It is just part of the contract. Because they can rely on this method to limit their involvement and their costs, they offer this kind of insurance at much lower rates and this can be very good if you know you will be able to swing into another insurance plan before the time limit runs out.

More details next time or go to http://www.wavehelp.com/short-term-medical-insurance.htm for more details now.

It has been interesting to observe how much TV airtime in 2007 and 2008 has been devoted to the concept of universal health insurance as the various presidential candidates jockey for your vote. There is no doubt that it is vital to have everyone covered by some sort of insurance for health care. However, universal coverage will not make the cost of healthcare cheaper for our society. It will probably be more expensive - maybe much more expensive.

How can I say that? Well, consider what insurance is on a very simplistic level.
1. Everyone tosses money into a pot in exchange for the right to draw from the pot to make payments for care.
2. Care is provided by medical professionals and facilities in exchange for payment from the pot.
3. A keeper of the pot manages the records and disburses the money from the pot.

If the group collectively (our insured society) is no more or less healthy than it has been in the past, there are only three reasons for the amount paid out of the pot to go up:
1. Medical professionals and facilities might demand more for the same work.
2. Medical breakthroughs might make it possible to treat more diseases or injuries so more work might be done by medical professionals and facilities resulting in more charges.
3. The keeper of the pot might demand more for the same work and/or might have to do more work in response to factor 2.

When any or all of these events occur, more money must be tossed into the pot to make up for the greater amount being taken out. At the simplest level, this is "medical inflation" and we have experienced it virtually every year.

So, if universal coverage is provided, it may actually cost us more collectively. Notice that I have not yet taken account of the persons who are presently uninsured. Putting them into the insured pool will make more outflow necessary - and therefore more inflow to the pot will be necessary -- or so it would seem.

In fact, it is not known how much more providing coverage to the uninsured will cost. At present, uninsured people receive some substantial amount of emergency care from hospitals and clinics free of charge. If they don't pay for the care they receive, who does? We all do because the hospitals and clinics must increase the price they charge to those who CAN pay to cover the care provided to those who cannot pay. The same is true to a lesser extent for medical professionals and pharmaceutical companies. Where the cost WILL increase is in the care that will be provided to low income persons that they previously did not receive.

For example, if you have no insurance and awaken with a sore throat, you might "tough it out" instead of seeking care. It is not right that anyone should need to tough it out; they should be able to get care. It is the cost of this "new" care that defies estimation.

So, the overall cost to our society will go up by an unknown amount and we will all collectively pay the increased cost.

What has not been extensively discussed is the expected delay in receiving needed care. With the stroke of a pen, universal health care can be instituted. But, who will provide the care? More doctors and nurses cannot be similarly created by the stroke of a pen. It will take years to ramp up the educational institutions to turn out more medical professionals. In the meantime, the existing group is going to need to provide the higher amount of care. That means that some sort of triage system will be needed to ensure that the sickest and most treatable will be taken to the front of the line while those who CAN wait will be MADE to wait.

So, what should you do? If you can, get insured now and begin to establish a relationship with doctors (especially) and hospitals so that when the crunch comes you will have some claim for preferential treatment as a "regular customer". If you have pre-existing conditions that prevent your being insured presently, or if you simply cannot afford to buy insurance now, make your needs known. Get involved in the political process so that the lawmakers know what they need to do. Most of them have a fabulous medical insurance program and have no concept of what others may experience. Tell them. Don't make them rely of lobbyists (who have their own agenda) to get the information they need. Write letters or e-mails. And, show up at meetings.

We can do this.