Health Insurance

This is a group of health care providers that have joined together. An important feature of this group is their emphasis on preventive medicine that includes physicals, regular office visits, mammograms, well baby care, and much more. A possible drawback is that there may be a limited number of providers in a specific geographic location. You must select a primary care physician as your main doctor, and referrals are necessary to see another doctor within the system.

This is a form of individual health insurance that gives you the widest range of flexibility in the choice of your doctors, including specialists, even if they are out of state. While it does cost a little more, you may feel that the convenience may be worth it. You may find that the health insurance company will only pay the fee that they consider to be usual and customary for any procedure in your geographical area, and you pay any additional costs. Your premium for this type of insurance may be higher or lower based on the amount of deductible you must pay before the insurance company pays any medical costs.

This is a combination of the preceding two plans. You choose a primary care physician from a limited number of doctors, but you are free to visit providers outside of the system. A PPO can also provide some preventive medicine. There is often an annual deductible that you must meet before your insurance begins to pay your medical bills, and you may need to pay a pre-arranged minimal fee at each visit. A PPO is a little less expensive than a fee for service plan, but you may pay more when you visit physicians that are out of the system.

This is another option available for health insurance coverage. By getting a high deductible on your insurance policy and by reducing the amount of your deductible, you will also lower your premiums. This allows you to set aside that amount and more into a savings plan that is tax-deductible. Any money you use toward your medical bills is also tax exempt, and it counts toward your insurance policy deductible. One advantage is that you control the money and can even use it toward other purposes, if necessary, but money used for other purposes is not tax exempt.

This is a type of government-sponsored low cost health insurance that provides benefits in proportion to the number of years of Medicare-covered employment that you had. Hospital insurance is free if you had more than 40 quarters of employment. Medical insurance carries a monthly fee, and a plan is now available for prescriptions. This program (and others known as Medicare Advantage and Medigap) are specifically designed to help the poor and the elderly and certain other groups of people who qualify. Medicare recipients may choose to purchase supplemental insurance to cover services not paid in full by the government plan.