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Health Insurance - What Can You Possibly Expect?
The choices are many in the market place (we do the shopping
for you) and it is very important to look at the fine print. A
starting place we suggest is identifying a program that has a
good lifetime limit of coverage per person, usually $1,000,000
or unlimited. Stay away from plans with nominal limits as we have
seen huge claims. For the self-employed there should be no reason
to downsize coverage as the premium is normally treated as a 100%
business expense, and check out options like Cost Plus as this
is an excellent tax break for some. If you have your own small
business don't rule out a group plan, as the minimum needed is
two.
Many people think that upon finding out that they have a medical
condition such as Type I diabetes it is a good time to look to
obtain health coverage. For individual extended health plans it
does not work this way as pre-existing conditions will be excluded
most times, and where they are not the coverage is normally inappropriate
in terms of having good protection. If a company makes you an
offer excluding pre-existing conditions it is often still worthy
of consideration as the contract will still protect you from future
illnesses and accidents. The best advice is to enroll into these
programs while you and your family are healthy to protect you
from the possibility of a big future hit.
Your spouse and children are also eligible for benefits. Children
must be dependant and under age 21 at the time of application.
Once insured benefits can usually be extended to age 25 for full-time
dependant students. To be eligible, you must be a Canadian
resident. For Health Care benefits, you and your family must
be covered by a provincial/territorial government health plan.
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