Shopping for health insurance can be quite intimidating, but once you have a basic knowledge of the types of insurance available, the task becomes less daunting. Hopefully this article will help give you the tools you need to tackle the task of purchasing insurance on your own.
The first thing you should know is that there are two different basic types of health insurance coverage. They are called indemnity and managed care. Indemnity, also known as fee for service, allows you to choose the doctor you want to see. The downside is that this freedom of choice will cost you a bit more. The other type of health insurance is called managed care. Managed care only allows you to see doctors within a certain network. The upside to this is that you will most likely be paying less than you would if you had your choice of physician. Some managed care organizations operate as independently from other clinics and hospitals. The organization itself will have a facility with there own physicians. Other managed care organizations will work with doctors and hospitals to come up with appropriate costs for patients under their coverage.
There are a number of available add-on plans to the two main types of health insurance. One such plan is disability insurance. Disability insurance will pay you up to sixty percent of your income if you become disabled and unable to work due to injury or illness. When you purchase your plan, you will specify the degree of coverage you want, meaning a specific number of years, usually in increments of five years. Your disability insurance will then pay you sixty percent of your income for that many years.
Long-term care is another type of health insurance policy add-on. This type of insurance will pay for medical, nursing, and certain types of in-home care if you are unable to care for yourself due to a disability or illness.
Dental and vision insurance protects you when you have serious problems with your teeth or eyes. A portion of your regular checkups may be covered as well, depending on your policy. This type of insurance in included in many health insurance policies, but you can purchase them separately if need be.
Hospital/surgical insurance usually do not require that a deductible is met before they will begin paying for your treatment, but there is a limit to how much they’ll cover. There are separate limits for the amount of hospital and physician charges they will pay. X-ray and diagnostic lab tests, non-surgical doctors’ services, hospital services, and the hospital room itself are among the benefits of this type of insurance.
If you do not have other health insurance coverage, catastrophic health insurance may be able to save you from bankruptcy should a major accident or medical problem occur. Catastrophic health insurance covers major hospital and medical expenses. If you don’t have other types of health insurance coverage, you will need to pay out of pocket for all other services aside from the major medical and hospital expenses. This type of coverage normally takes care of surgery, intensive care, hospital stays, and diagnostic X-ray and lab tests. This type of insurance usually has low monthly premiums with high deductibles.
Specific-dread disease insurance will cover costs specific to only certain diseases like diabetes, asthma, or cancer. Specific-dread disease insurance is designed to work along with other types of more basic coverage.
Finally, hospital indemnity insurance means that the insurance company makes payments directly to you instead of sending it to the hospital or physician group. The insurance company pays a certain amount each day you are in the hospital for a certain number of days. By having the money sent to you, the payments may be used for other out of pocket expenses and bills incurred from being ill and not being able to work.
Here are a few definitions to help you remember all of the terms associated with Medical Insurance:
- Copayment: a fixed amount that an insured person must pay in order to take advantage of services covered by their insurance plan.
- Deductible: the amount an insured person must pay toward each claim before their medical insurance benefits will take over payment.
- Coinsurance: the percentage of a claim the insured will have to payment of the deductible.
- PPO (Preferred Provider Organization): a type of insurance organization that provides the insured with more coverage if they choose to see a doctor affiliated with their specific insurance provider, but the insured are not limited to only those health care professionals.
- HMO (Health Maintenance Organization): a health insurance organization that provides their insured with services from only health care professionals affiliated with the organization.
Now that you have an idea about the different types of health insurance that is available, and the different types of add on insurances, deciding what insurance coverage is right for you should be a slightly less daunting task. To make it even easier, the experts at SimplyFinance are available to help you find the best insurance policy to meet your needs.