p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } A large variety of health insurance policies are available at the market place. Before purchasing one such policy, you are required to make a comparative analysis of all the policies.
4 Broad types of health insurance plans
Problem: Hi, I am a 29-year old salaried person. Recently, I met an unforeseen accident for which I had to undergo minor surgery. Though I am alright now, but the surgery has badly hit my finances. Now, I am seriously thinking about taking out an appropriate health insurance plan. Can you please guide me what are the types of health insurance policies available at the market place with their pros and cons.
Solution: If you are not covered by proper medical insurance health insurance plan, you have to bear the cost of health care services by yourself. In case any serious illness happens, this puts you into vulnerable financial situation. Two mains ways to obtain heath care protection is either by purchasing an individual health insurance plan or a group health insurance plan. However, when purchasing health insurance plans, you need to do a comparative analysis on the benefits, costs, inclusions and exclusions, contained in different health insurance plans. Broad types of health insurance plans are described below.
Free-for-service health plans
These are the traditional health care plans where the health insurers pay fees for the services offered to the insured. If you opt for this policy you can chose your doctor and hospital from a wide list of doctors and hospitals. Moreover, you can change the doctor any time. Here, the insurance company pays a part of the medical bill. And, every month you pay to the insurer a certain sum of money as premium. To get the insurance benefit, you need to fill out forms and send the forms to the insurance company. This is also sometimes done by your doctor’s office. However, you need to furnish all the receipts, showing the medical costs.
Health Maintenance Organizations (HMO)
These are prepaid health plans. As a member of the HMO, you pay premium on a monthly basis. In reciprocation, the HMO offers comprehensive health care coverages for you as well as your family members. The coverages offered by HMO include surgery fees, hospital charges, visits to doctors, costs of therapies and costs of pathological costs. The HMOs provide these benefits either directly or through other health care professionals under contract. Unlike in free-for-service health plans, the choices of doctors and hospitals are limited.
Point-of-service plans (POS)
These are indemnity-type of health plans offered by the HMOs. Here, the primary care doctors are in a position to refer other medical providers who are listed in the plan. However, if the referral is outside the network, the health plans pay all or most of the medical bill.
Preferred Provider Organizations (PPO)
Plans offered by PPOs are combination of free-for-service plans and HMOs. In line with the HMOs, the choice of doctors and hospitals are limited. However, like the free-for-service plans, most of your medical bills are covered under these plans. In these plans, a card is issued to you and whenever you visit a doctor’s place, you just present a card and you are not required to fill out forms.
Whatsoever, before purchasing a health insurance plan, you are required to compare the different policies available at the market place.
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