Affordable Health Insurance for Children Only in Virginia
While most families in Virginia prefer to include their children on a family policy, that is not feasible for all families. Some employers do not include kids on their group medical plan, or they make it very expensive to cover non-employees. In other cases, children do not live in the same city as the parent who has to buy coverage, and they may even live with grandparents or other relatives.
However, if you need to cover kids separately, you can find many quality companies that offer child only health insurance in Virginia plans. Since insurers tend to set rates based upon age, it usually possible to find very affordable health insurance for children only in Virginia.
Best Child Only Health Insurance in Virginia
These are some statistics about Virginia children:
- CHIP: Virginia CHIP eligibility is 200 percent of the poverty level.
- Virginia population: 8,260,405
- Virginia population under 18: 22.6%
- Virginia Beach population: 437,994
- Norfolk population: 242,803
- Chesapeake population: 222,209
- Children living with grandparents or other family members in Virgina: 179,596 or almost 10 percent of all kids in Virginia
Children’s Health Insurance Program in Virgina (CHIP Coverage)
While CHIP and Medicaid provide a valuable safety net, they are not the right solution for all families. Besides strict income qualifications, it takes time to get accepted. Also, the programs are HMOs, and these may be very restrictive for some families.
Meanwhile, child only health insurance in Virginia insurance offers many PPOs. PPOs are the most popular type of managed care because they give families more flexibility in choosing doctors and other health care services.
This is the difference between Virginia HMOs and PPOs:
- HMO members have to get virtually all of their covered medical services from the providers on a plan network.
- PPO members can save money by visiting network providers, but they still have the freedom to get covered services outside of the network.
Comparing Health Insurance for Children in Virginia
Your first step should be to gather health insurance quotes for kids. Besides price, you need to compare the benefits of different policies. In some cases, the child only health insurance in Virginia plans will not save you money.
If your child is fairly healthy and mostly needs affordable health insurance in case of an emergency, you might chose a plan with a fairly high deductible. However, if your child suffers from a medical condition that requires frequent doctor’s appointments and prescriptions, you may be more satisfied with more robust coverage to help you control regular medical expenses.
Plan networks also matter. While, for example, some insurers may have very good groups in large cities like Arlington or Richmond, they may not have as many providers in a small town or rural area.
If you have any other questions, feel free to give one of our agents a call. They’ll be happy to answer any questions you may have.