No one wants to fail at retirement – just the thought of it brings on a little stress and anxiety. Its likely that you want to do everything possible to help you make your ‘second life’ the most meaningful, exciting, and happiest years of your life. That’s why the people at www.boomingencore.ca made the eBook Longevity Lifestyle free of charge, and want as many retirees as possible to read it. The book is written to equip you with the framework, insights, and strategies on how best to play the long game.

One of the key principles you’ll discover is that your most important asset is your health. Health is wealth. It’s the ability to do the fun stuff with the people you love for as long as you can and maintaining your health enables you to live independently for as long as possible.

Health insurance is vital to your Longevity Lifestyle

In designing your ideal second life, it is of course important to focus on your retirement finances. It is equally important to focus on your “best before date”—the period of disability-free living that consists of your best and most active retirement years when you can still do the things that you love to do, like traveling, working to some degree at something you love, or taking up a new hobby.

The good news is that we know that lifestyle has a major impact on a person’s “best before date,” and we have the ability to extend our own best before date by taking the best care of our mental and physical health as possible.

The bad news is that taking care of your health can mean significant out-of-pocket costs for things like dental care, prescription drugs and therapy – not covered by your government health plan.

The solution is having health insurance in place to help you cover healthcare costs.

What does retirement health insurance cover?

Your health insurance is available to pay for medical services and products that are not covered by your provincial health plan. You will pay a monthly premium for your plan and can continue the coverage for your entire life.

There are many plan options, with different premiums, deductibles, and eligible services. Different plan designs offer different levels of coverage for prescription drugs and dental expenses — some plans cover prescription drugs, but not dental care, while others cover dental care, but not prescription drugs and some cover both. Here is an overview of typical plan designs from least expensive to most expensive, any of which will cover the prescriptions you need now, or may need in the future:

A Basic Prescription Drug Plan

These plans cover prescription drugs, but not dental care. They are ideal if you are budget conscious.

An Enhanced Prescription Drug Plan

These plans will cover prescription drugs with increased coverage amounts for both the drugs and for the core benefits. They do not cover dental.

A Basic Prescription Drug and Dental Plan

These plans include basic prescription drug and dental coverage.

An Enhanced Prescription Drug and Dental Plan

These plans offer the highest level of prescription drug coverage, core benefit coverage, and the dental coverage includes dentures and orthodontics.

The core of a health insurance plan typically includes coverage for:

  • vision care
  • hearing aids
  • emergency medical travel coverage
  • registered specialists and therapists
  • ambulance and in-home nursing care

Some health insurance plans are medically underwritten, and some are guaranteed acceptance.

Medically underwritten plans typically provide higher levels of coverage. However, if your health is not the best or you take a few medications on a regular basis, you may want to consider a guaranteed acceptance plan.

Plans that offer core benefits plus dental coverage often are guaranteed acceptance — that is, the policy will be available to you regardless of your health. There are some plans that offer lower levels of both prescription drug and dental coverage with core benefits on a guaranteed basis.

And, if you are leaving a group plan and apply for an individual health insurance plan within 90 days, many insurers will offer guaranteed acceptance. There is no underwriting required.

Use your Health Insurance features to maintain your good health

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Many health insurance plans include access to medical professionals for video consultations, eliminating the obstacles of travel and waiting room time delays. It can help you shorten the cycle between identifying a health problem and implementing a clinical solution, making taking care of your health more convenient and easier than ever. You can even consider using a wider range of healthcare services without having to travel to a healthcare facility, like talking to a dietician.

Resilience has been one of the biggest challenges we have all faced, and many of us have felt the magnified impact of stress and burn out. Health insurance delivers tools so you can proactively work on your resiliency and wellbeing, and helps you pay for therapies or prescriptions you may need – keeping you mentally fit and strong today and in the future.

When it comes to improving your overall well-being in mind, body, and spirit, you may consider the advantages of physical therapies. Naturopathic doctors, massage performed by registered therapists and eastern-based acupuncture are just some of the options individuals choose. These services are not covered by your government health plan, and you will be charged a fee, which may be partially covered by your health insurance. The dollar amount covered per visit (if there is one) and the annual combined maximum benefit will be outlined in your health insurance plan.

Your health insurance plan delivers many “built in” tools that can help you learn new ways to deal with the expected and unexpected in life:

  • Motivational programs to help you focus and achieve your health goals
  • Access to recent articles on finding care, managing your health, and preventing illness
  • Easy-to-use search tools to help you find a doctor, health facility, or community support group in your area can help you stay healthy
  • Provincial health resource information
  • Trusted information on medical conditions and prescription drugs

Health insurance even includes handy apps to download that can help you plan and manage your family’s health too.

Plan for your Longevity Lifestyle now

Educate yourself with great planning tools and look to SBIS for excellent planning resources on retirement health insurance. It can be hard to decide about the right retirement health insurance. Our team can help you make sense of all the options and provide sound guidance you need to make an informed decision.

SBIS representatives are friendly experts who take your call and help you with your questions. We can even help after you’ve already purchased a plan to make any changes that need to be made. Don’t put off getting the health insurance you need any longer. Call us Monday to Friday 8:45 a.m. – 4:45 p.m. Eastern Time at 1-800-667-0429 or 416-601-0429 – we’re happy to help.