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 Posted: Tue Mar 10, 2009 10:16 am Post subject: Health Class and insurance rates |
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How do the health carriers fix our rates and determine our 'health class'?
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Plastimind
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| Posted: Tue Mar 10, 2009 7:34 pm Post subject: health insurance rates |
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The answer to this question will vary between the company that you apply it to. As a general rule of thumb in order to qualify for health insurance you need to qualify through a process called medical underwritting. This is the process in which an underwritter investigates your medicale history to determine what health conditions you have had and currently have. The underwritter than uses this information to calculate that individuals potential health care costs in the future. Your health class and your monthly premiums will also be greatly effected by your lifestyle. If you are a smoker you pay more, if you are overwieght you pay more, and even if you have been declined for other insurance you will pay more. All of these factors are indicators of increased risk to the insurance company, to hedge against this risk the insurnace company charges you more premium to soften the blow should you have a large claim.
This is only a basic interpretation of how insurance companies determine rates and classes and is only illustrating the basic concept. |
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wwwsimplyinsuremecom
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| Posted: Thu Mar 12, 2009 7:04 am Post subject: |
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Hi,
See, each company would determine the health class of an applicant on the basis of their own criteria. Depending on your qualifications as per their criteria, they'd arrive at your rates. It's not unnatural for a person to achieve a 'standard class' for one company while achieving a 'preferred class' with it's competitor.
When it comes to determining your health class during life insurance underwriting, factors like smoking would have a strong impact. In order to achieve a 'preferred' rate you'd need to maintain a healthy lifestyle for years. Cholesterol level, Height-weight ratio, BP level, past family health history are some of the important factors that affect your rates. You'd probably need to undergo a small medical test before your health class is actually determined.
Fatman |
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fatman
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| Posted: Wed Mar 18, 2009 1:21 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | See, each company would determine the health class of an applicant on the basis of their own criteria. |
Well Fatman, there are about 15-20 health rate classes with all life insurance companies.
Of these the Preferred, Preferred Best, Standard and Standard Plus are the common ones. Under these classes there are the other rate-classes which are called the table-ratings.
Everyone of us would desire to fall into the Preferred Best class. Little do we know that it's only 2% of our population that would fall within this category.
Roddick |
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roddick
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| Posted: Thu Mar 19, 2009 11:51 am Post subject: |
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Hi,
We'd certainly be eligible for a better rate-class if we stay healthier. By leading a healthier life we'd be paying lower premiums to our carriers. We should never forget that our carriers would definitely look into our entire family health history while determining our rate-classes.
ArindamSenIndies |
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ArindamSenIndies
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OhioHealthInsurance
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