Disclosure: I participated in a campaign on behalf of Mom Central Consulting (#MC) for Aflac. I received a promotional item as a thank you for participating.
Insurance may not be the most exciting thing to talk about but, take it from me, it is important and worthy of a few minutes of your time. I am presently uninsured and it is very costly to be without any coverage. The cost of healthcare has gone up for the past 10 years, and with that, the cost of insurance premiums. In fact, “worker contributions for family health insurance coverage have increased by 89% from 2003 to 2013…”. That is a large increase and it isn’t gong to change anytime soon. Sadly, many employees aren’t prepared and make mistakes. Many workers don’t understand their employer’s benefits and “68% admit to making mistakes during the open enrollment process”.
Are you familiar with open enrollment? Each year, my husband’s job brings in a representative from the health insurance company and supplemental insurance (Aflac) to discuss any changes to their plan, to answer any questions the workers may have, and offer help to the employees. Not all employers do that though so you may need to be more prepared for open enrollment. Compare your benefit changes to your previous year policy and see what changes have taken place. Ask your HR department what changes have occurred or call your provider for more information. Do your homework and make a decision that is right for you and your family!
Don’t be one of the 54% of workers that waste money each year because of benefits mistakes made during open enrollment. How much did that mistake average out to? They wasted up to $750!!! Sixty percent of workers haven’t even begun to educate themselves about coming changes to their benefits package due to the health care reform. Be the minority! Be prepared!
Supplemental insurance became something we needed not too long ago. When Jemma became ill, we needed to use Aflac to get paid for her tests, hospitalization, x-rays, and more. Sadly, we didn’t have the correct coverage because of a mistake during open enrollment. What could have helped us immensely didn’t help us at all because we weren’t signed up for the best coverage for our family. This is a lesson to you all about knowing your policy, asking questions, ensuring you truly are signed up for the coverage you want and need, and using it correctly. A very bad time could have been made much easier had we been signed up for the proper coverage for our family.
You can find out more about open enrollment and how to be ready with Aflac’s Open Enrollment Resources.
(Information quoted and reviewed for this post was provided by Aflac and the 2013 Open Enrollment Survey.)
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