Protect Your Health Insurance: Avoid Policy Lapses & Maintain Coverage

Health insurance is a must in times of both health and sickness. Whether the economy is doing well or in a recession, it is important to maintain your coverage. You do not want to be in the unfortunate situation of losing your health insurance -- even for a few days. There are ways to avoid letting your policy lapse.

Instructions

• 1

  Read your insurance bill every month. Make sure you open all correspondence from your health insurance company. Sometimes it will send communication that is not a bill but contains important updates about coverage.

• 2

  Set up an electronic payment schedule through your bank. Most banks have bill payment platforms in the online banking systems. Double-check to make sure that you enter the correct account number and payee information.

• 3

  Schedule the payment to arrive at least one day before your actual due date. This will help you avoid a lapse in your coverage. The HealthInsuranceControl website defines a lapse as "the period of time after your insurance premium is due." If you do miss your due date, you have a maximum of a few days to send in your payment. Miss this grace period, and you will likely see a spike in your premium amount, have any medical conditions developed since your last payment labeled as a preexisting condition or lose your coverage altogether. Any of these scenarios results in a no-win headache for you.

• 4

  Enter the correct premium amount. Double- and triple-check this to be sure. The Politicol News website posted a heartbreaking story of an insurance company dropping its customers over a payment error of 2 cents. You don't want to lose your health insurance because of a careless data entry error.