Affordable Health Insurance - How To Buy Cheap Health Insurance

When Is It Best To Buy A Traditional Indemnity Health Insurance Plan

2007-12-08T06:00:00.000-08:00

Health insurance plans can be split into two large categories – traditional indemnity plans and managed care plans and, although both provide health insurance cover, they are poles separately in terms of the cover they provide and the way in which they are administered.

Indemnity health insurance plans are designed to provide cover for unpredicted medical bills arising principally through accident or illness. Managed care plans by contrast are based upon the principle of supporting care which is designed to prevent illness in the first place, or on detecting and treating illness at an early stage when treatment is often simple and costs are low.

Indemnity health insurance plans are also designed to give the policyholder immediate care of his or her own choosing and put much of the responsibility for administration on the plan (including the initial payment of medical bills and the completion of claims paperwork) on the policyholder.

As indemnity health insurance plans give the policyholder both choice and access to immediate treatment and cover medical events that are frequently very expensive, the cost of indemnity health insurance is often high. As a result, indemnity insurance should only be purchased when you feel that it will best suit your own personal needs, based upon your current state of health and medical history, and when you are satisfied that you can afford the policy, not just today but also in the years ahead.

Indemnity plans will usually be issued as basic health insurance, major medical insurance or comprehensive insurance (a combination of both basic and major medical insurance).

Basic medical insurance can be expected to cover such things as visits to the doctor (other than for regular check-ups and preventative care), hospital care (including the cost of room and board and some services such as x-ray and medication) and surgery (performed either in hospital or at a surgical center or doctor’s office).

Major medical insurance is designed to cover extended treatment of high-cost illness or major injury and will normally cover all hospital costs and subsequent out-patient bills.

This is of course simply a general overview and specific cover will vary between insurance companies and across different plans within the same company. These three types of plan will all have different costs with a basic insurance plan being the cheapest and a comprehensive plan the most expensive.

If your main concern is to find a health insurance plan which will allow you choice and provide you with security, then a traditional indemnity health insurance plan may well give you the cover you are looking for.

Exactly What Is Health Insurance?

2007-12-08T05:49:00.000-08:00

Do I really need health insurance or be able to I live without it?

This is a question which numerous people ask and it is not all the time an easy question answer. certainly, the answer frequently depends on who you ask.

As with the majority form of insurance, it could be argue that you don’t really need it until you need it. For instance, car insurance doesn't do you any good until you have a car accident and life insurance doesn't do you any different until you are deceased. By the same token, health insurance doesn't do you any good until you a ill. However, if like many people you accept as true in Murphy's Law - that whatever can go wrong, will go wrong - then it would probably be a good idea to consider about getting health insurance.

In many countries such as the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Norway and Sweden health insurance is not an matter since medical care is provided free of charge and doctors and hospitals are reimbursed by the government.

In the United States however most healthcare bills are met from insurance and there are three basic forms of health insurance:

Self-Insured or Uninsured. Here an entity either has no insurance at all or has health insurance and is liable for paying his own insurance premiums. It is estimated that at least 30% of the United States population falls into this category.

Managed Care Plans. Managed care plans, which are networks providing contracted service by specified providers at contracted prices, fall into three categories:

Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs) are pre-paid health insurance plans for which members pay a set monthly premium. HMOs provide medical services ranging from visits to the doctor's office to hospitalization and surgery and you are normally required to seek treatment from a designated network of healthcare providers.

Preferred Provider Organizations (PPOs) comprise groups of doctors and healthcare facilities which provide medical services to a specified group. Members of PPOs normally pay for services as they are used and are then reimbursed for the costs of treatment. In most cases services are provided at a price which has been negotiated between the healthcare provider and the PPO.

Point Of Service (POS) is a type of managed healthcare system in which you pay a minimal co-payment and no deductible as long as health care is provided within your network. However, you are free to seek treatment outside of the network but, should you wish to do so, you will have to pay additional charges and possibly a deductible.

Indemnity Plans. An indemnity health insurance plan allows the plan holder to seek medical treatment whenever and wherever they choose. The major benefit of an indemnity plan lies in the freedom of choice that it gives to plan holder but this freedom also makes indemnity plans the most expensive form of health insurance.

The form of plan that will best suit your needs will depend very much on your personal circumstances and choosing a health insurance plan is a time-consuming task. Nonetheless, health insurance is something which everyone needs to consider sooner or later.

List of Health Insurance Company

2007-12-08T05:37:00.000-08:00

Best Deal Insurance
Vimo Insurance
eHealth Insurance
Affordable Health Insurance
HealthInsurance.com
eMaxHealth.com
2Insure4Less.com
Council for Affordable Health Insurance

When Is It Best To Buy A Managed Health Care Insurance Plan?

2007-12-08T05:03:00.000-08:00

Health insurance plans today is broadly divided between traditional indemnity health insurance plans (which tend to be quite expensive) and managed health care insurance plans (which tend to be somewhat more affordable). The most well known form of managed care plan is that provided by the Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs) which are designed to give you a reasonable level of medical care at a relatively low price.

For most of us the idea of being able to get medical care at a relatively low price is attractive, however, this can be very much a case of you "get what you pay for" and, unless you buy a managed care plan with both of your eyes wide open, you could well be disappointed by the quality of the care which you receive.

Managed care operates by tightly controlling costs and this means controlling access to care. Health maintenance organizations are networks of healthcare facilities whose services are contracted to the HMOs for an agreed fee.

Although it would seem logical that the term managed health care would mean that health care is managed, in fact it is often more a case of plan holders being managed, as they are normally required to seek their healthcare from within the HMO’s network and access to this healthcare is controlled by a single doctor to whom the patient is assigned. This frequently means that a patient's choice is severely limited and that a plan holder may have to join a waiting list for treatment.

In some limited circumstances plan holders will be allowed to seek treatment outside of the network but, when this happens, the HMO will usually require the plan holder to pay any costs which are considered to be above those which the HMO considers reasonable and customary for the treatment in question.

So, against this background, why would anyone choose a managed health care plan in preference to an indemnity health insurance plan, other than for reasons of mere cost?

The principle difference between indemnity health insurance and the managed care model is to be found in the cover provided. Indemnity health insurance is designed to cover the plan holder against unexpected, and frequently extremely high, medical bills arising out of an accident or serious illness. Managed care by contrast aims at providing preventative care and focuses its attention on keeping plan holders healthy by helping with the costs of routine medical care including such things as check-ups and vaccinations.

Obviously there are many situations in which one type of insurance would be more suitable than another. For example, if you are married and have a young and growing family then you may feel that focusing your attention on preventative medicine, particularly for your children, would make a managed care plan a good choice.

Affordable Health Insurance

2007-12-06T08:42:00.000-08:00

Affordable Health Insurance - How To Buy Cheap Health Insurance

When Is It Best To Buy A Traditional Indemnity Health Insurance Plan

Exactly What Is Health Insurance?

List of Health Insurance Company

When Is It Best To Buy A Managed Health Care Insurance Plan?

Affordable Health Insurance

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