Short Term Health Insurance - What You Need to Know

Short term health insurance or temporary health insurance is a good way to alleviate the risk of an unforeseen and unfortunate event while in the midst of a transitional period. All of that to say that it is extremely important to make sure that you keep continuous coverage and do not let your health insurance coverage lapse.

Short term health insurance is very affordable as most plans are comprehensive major medical plans but without all of the extra benefits like copays for prescriptions and copays for doctors visits that can be quite pricey. Short term health insurance is a great way for students that need cheap health insurance coverage to obtain coverage in an inexpensive and easy manner. (Note, that temporary health insurance should not be a permanent substitute for a “real” health insurance plan but is most suitable when the student has a job offer with health benefits soon on the horizon or is getting married and will then have health benefits or some other similar scenario).

Many temporary health insurance plans can be compared, purchased, and then be made effective all online and within a couple of days or even hours. Medical exams are almost never required for short term health insurance (or for most individual health insurance plans for that matter – unless maybe you are approaching your 60’s and have not had a physical for 10 or more years). Almost all insurance companies offer online quoting for their individual and short term health insurance plans.

Although short term coverage is very cheap you will still want to shop around and find a well known and reputable insurance company. You can request health insurance quotes directly at the insurance company’s website but it is usually easier to request quotes from an independent website as they will show you health insurance quotes from 3 or more insurance companies that offer coverage in your area side by side for an easy comparison.