Your health insurance review is an opportunity to consider what’s working for you and anything that’s not. You’ll want to evaluate what benefits that you did and did not use, what benefits you needed but didn’t have, how often you went to the doctor, how much your out-of-pocket costs were and if they were affordable, any lifestyle changes that have affected your health, and any doctors you were able or not able to see.
If a major life event has happened, you should do a review of your plan at that time. These events can include marriage, divorce, pay increase, loss of wages, had a baby, or moved. These changes can affect your options to coverage and therefore qualify you to review your options.
Outside of the major events, you should plan to review your benefits every year. It doesn’t mean you need to make a change. You just reflect on your life situation and what’s available. From there you make a decision to change or stay.
After reflecting on your current life situation and your current plan, you should take a look each year to see where you can seek improvement in your plans.
You could have life changes that demand alternative coverage. Whether you have a new member of your family, or you’re trying to have a new member of the family. Your needs for coverage could change. Whether or not you decide to exercise and make other healthy choices could affect what coverage you need. Age, stress levels, living environments, health conditions and other factors also can make a difference. Is there something you're probably wanting to get done in the new future, like a test or a procedure, that requires a change in your coverage?
Your financial situation could also be different, whether you make more or less. It can affect coverage that you need, like copays and other out of pocket costs. It can affect your need for a change in your premium. If you are on an ACA Marketplace, it can affect your eligibility in a tax credit. Unfortunately, most Americans don’t have a savings for medical costs, so you want your health plan to cover as much as possible, according to what you’d expect to need. Changing the cost to your health plan could potentially help you reach other financial goals.
Available plans change every year. More or less plan options could be available the following year. The plans also may change their coverage from year to year. What you’ve seen available one year may have a lot of differences the following year. Changes can also include whether or not a doctor stays in network with a plan; they could add or lose contracts. Prescription formularies change, and so whether or not prescriptions are covered can also change.
You’re not obligated to make a change, except under the circumstances that you are no longer eligible for a plan, or it is no longer available. No one should ever make you feel obligated to change. It is always your decision in the long run. A review won’t hurt. Once you’ve looked at what you have, what’s available, and what your current situation is, then make a decision. If staying is the decision that’s most suitable for you, then keep the plan you currently have. If there is another plan that suits your needs better, than make the switch.
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