Getting Short Term Disability Health Insurance Over Medicare

In essence, you can only get Medicare if you are a senior citizen aged 65 and over or if you have a long term disability.  Medicare is a country-wide, government sponsored health insurance program, and just like other health insurance programs, you will need to apply for Medicare as well.  Let’s assume that you are under age 65 but have been diagnosed with a short term disability, like pneumonia- in such cases, you may be able to get short term disability insurance depending on the type of coverage you have.

What Insurance are You Entitled To?

Since your disability is short term (short term in this sense means that the disability is not expected to last a full year), you will not be eligible to receive Social Security benefits or Medicare.  You can only receive Medicare if you have received disability benefits for two consecutive years.  Otherwise you will need to meet the age requirement in order to qualify for Medicare.

So with the Medicare option being out of the picture, you have two options, they are short term disability benefits and short term health insurance:

• If you are already employed then you may have access to short term disability insurance easily.  Within the first 14 days of your injury you will be eligible to receive short term disability benefits – of course, providing that you have proper verification from your physician. 
• In the verification you will need to have your physician stipulate exactly how long you will be considered to have a disability as well as your recovery time. 
• Additionally, if you are currently employed you should hopefully already have company sponsored health benefits. 
• However, if you are an individual who is between jobs and you opted not to take part in the COBRA benefits, then you will probably need to get short-term health insurance.

What is Short Term health Insurance?

Short-term health insurance provides a temporary solution to bridge the gap between having health insurance and not having health insurance.  Usually the short term policies can last anywhere from one to six months with the option of renewing the policy for a total of 36 months. 

Applying for short-term health insurance is a much easier process than if you were to apply for an individual long term policy.  Furthermore, you can easily be insured within 24 hours of application.  These policies are payable by credit card and over the telephone.  So, if you had an injury that later became diagnosed as a short term disability then a short term health insurance policy would be ideal in providing you the coverage that you would need in order to get short term disability benefits.

Getting Help

If you have any questions about what benefits you are entitled to under the law, or if you need help seeking disability benefits from your employer or the government, consult with an experienced disability attorney. Your attorney can explain to you the different options for recovering benefits and can help you to collect the benefits you need to get and stay healthy.