Choosing a health insurance coverage plan is an incredibly complex and confusing undertaking. Few get a thrill out of cross-shopping plans and comparing coverage areas. Choosing a plan can be seemingly impossible if the person seeking coverage is poorly educated or influenced by incorrect or biased information.
This is where a health care navigator comes in to save the day. In an increasingly complex system of legal requirements, loopholes and available options, navigators can make sure each of their clients has a thorough understanding of all options. Armed with this unbiased knowledge, people of every socioeconomic background can select the plan they need to live a fulfilling life.
In a nutshell, health care navigation is the process of figuring out what coverage combination is the best value and is well-suited for a client. According to the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, a navigator is an individual or organization that is trained in assisting a variety of different clients with looking for health coverage options in the marketplace. Navigators offer their services free of charge and ?judgment or biases.
Though businesses of many backgrounds can benefit from meeting with a health care navigator, people of a lower socioeconomic status will find their help ?especially precious.
Whether or not they are social workers by trade, navigators embody many of the profession’s traits. By being impartial educators, navigators answer each client’s questions and fill in the gaps in their understanding of the health care market. They take into account the financial needs of clients and can connect them with assistance programs that could help protect them from sacrificing their health and well-being because of a lack of funds.
This can protect them in the event of a life-changing diagnosis or accident.
Critics are typically concerned with the expense navigators poses to tax payers. Admittedly, it’s generated entirely from the social inventions of health care, insurance and social welfare. The necessity of a navigator is arguably a product of costly bureaucracy.
However, I believe navigators are a worthy expenditure that help to bridge the gap between people in need and the services available ?to them.
At times, this disconnect can be massive and life-threatening; in such scenarios, the assistance of a navigator can be priceless. For this reason, let alone many others that have gone unmentioned, navigators are both necessary and worthy additions to the government social service network.
sjdickma@indiana.edu
