Types Of Health Insurance
What is actually a health insurance? This is a kind of agreement between an insurance company and a person that wants to get insured. The insured pays money regularly and because of this contract the insurer must pay all the medical costs of the insured in case if he or she gets ill. This is simple and legal. Then why are there so many issues with private insurance? Because there is sometimes no transparency in the financial sphere. Insurance company can raise their payments but their customers get a notion of it only in the end of the year. In such situation a person counts on his or her insurance plan but all of the sudden it is found the premiums of the insurance company have raised. Besides, there happen constant delays with payments or some claims even get rejected.
However, health insurance is something that a person must have. Health insurance makes you feel secure and protects your health. That is why you should definitely choose one out of these plans:
- Indemnity plans.
- Managed Care: HMOs, PPOs, and POS Plans
- Group Health Insurance, covering the medical costs of many different people
- Individual health Insurance, reimbursing the medical expenses of only one person or a family
- Vision Care Insurance
- Dental Insurance
- Medicare
- Medicaid
But, there are only two main groups of health insurance: indemnity plans and managed care plans. Indemnity plans cover your medical costs not considering who provides the service. However, the coverage can be limited sometimes. Managed care plans are based on the fact the insurer has an arrangement with a network of health care providers and the insured can choose a doctor or a hospital from that network only. There are three types of managed care plans: HMOs - Health Maintenance Organizations, PPOs - Preferred Provider organizations, and POS Plans - Point of Service plans. All insured usually have significant financial incentives to use the healthcare providers within the network. Besides, managed health care plans help to control the expenses. It means that if you think you need to go to the hospital, you should first contact your insurance company for them to make sure that it is needed.
HMOs are actually prepaid health plans. Being a member of HMO, you have to pay the premium regularly. Then you and the members of your family get emergency care, surgery, laboratory tests, doctors' visits, hospital stays, x-rays, and therapy. Usually you have a fixed fee for your covered medical care.
The PPO is like a blend of traditional fee for service health care and HMO. Here you have a limited number of health care providers and you get most of your medical expenses covered. In this health plan you should choose a primary doctor.
POS is also a health plan according to which you have to choose primary doctors who will make referrals to other health care providers. However, you can refer yourself outside the plan and get your medical bill partially paid.