Is cheap health insurance really cheap?  This probably sounds like an obvious question, but do we all think cheap health insurance is truly as cheap as it sounds to be?  Cheap health insurance may not necessarily be cheap as we are made to believe.  All coins are double-sided, and this is also of health insurance.  So let us squarely face the facts.

The reality about cheap health insurance

Some times it becomes necessary to face the bitter realities of life, especially if such a reality would save you from making unnecessary mistakes.  If we are to critically look at cheap health insurance, we may be surprised to find out that it is not after all cheap.  But we have to face it.  You may acquire insurance at a low cost and therefore cheap when in real sense it does not adequately cover all your health needs/risks.  This would mean that you have health insurance but yet still exposed to health risks.  So would this be really cheap health insurance?  Obviously not!  It would even prove to be more costly than comprehensive health insurance offered at a higher cost.

What if it is cheap when the health insurance compensation process is very slow, strict and bureaucratic?  We would probably all agree that in this case it would not be as cheap as it sounds in the first place.  For cheap health insurance to be preferable, it should have a friendly compensation claim process.  Insurance compensation which can never be claimed back is no insurance at all. 

Therefore, in our quest for cheap health insurance, we should not be blind of the fact that health insurance may be provided at a cheaper cost when the cost aspect is hiding even bigger disabilities.  Yes, we may need cheap health insurance, but we certainly need insurance that will not leave us exposed to risk.

The other side of the coin

Many people would then need to know; should we really reject cheap health insurance because it will certainly expose us to even greater risk?  The answer to this would be wrong if it was in the affirmative.  It would certainly be misleading to suggest that cheap health insurance is always bad.  We need not ignore the fact that it is affordable and thus customer friendly.  Given two items, any rational customer would choose that which is offered at a lower cost, holding other factors constant.  Therefore, cheap health insurance is not just as bad.

Certainly, when placing your health risks with a health insurance provider, there is need to make a comparison of different health insurance providers.  In such a comparison, the cost aspect figures prominently and in most cases, and rightly so we choose the insurer offering health insurance at the lowest cost.  This tends to point to the irresistible fact that, given other factors, we would all need cheap health insurance.  Well, we all need it but should we ignore the fact that any health insurance coverage is only worthy its name if it adequately covers us from risk?  No, we should not!

As pointed out earlier, any criticism of cheap health insurance would not be valid if it did not put into account the fact that cheap health insurance meets the basic need for value for money.  Each one of us would prefer cheap health insurance to health insurance coverage that is expensive and unaffordable.  And surely why not? It is only logical that lower cost services are preferred to very expensive ones, and health insurance is no exception to this widely accepted truism.  It thus follows that, given other considerations; cheap health insurance would fit in the needs of all rational individuals.

Having agreed on the two faces of cheap health insurance, we can definitely conclude that as we look for cheap health insurance, we should also strive to look for health insurance that is not only cheap but also adequately covers all our health risks/needs.