Health insurance plans fall into four main categories:
- Health Maintenance Organizations
- Preferred Provider Plans
- Major Medical Plans
- High Deductible Health Plans
About 10 years ago, these different types of plans were very distinct and could easily be identified.
Today, the lines have blurred, making it hard to distinguish one from the other in many cases.
In a traditional sense, a Health Maintenance Organization is a health plan where your care is managed by your primary care physician along with the Health Maintenance 
Organization itself. These plans typically have low co-payments for services at a doctor’s office and even for hospitalizations and surgeries. A big drawback to these plans is that when you get sick, you end up being limited to which doctors you can see and you will need referrals from your primary care physician and approval from the managed care organization for anything from diagnostic tests to surgeries and hospitalization.
Preferred Provider Plans were originally a spin-off of HMO’s. Insurance companies saw they had good discounts with in-network providers and consumers were upset with the oversight from the managed care companies. So, they created plans that had the features people liked – low copayments and little insurance company oversight. Also, there are benefits when you go out of network, but they are reduced by 20% – 30%.
The health plan that has been around the longest is the Major Medical Insurance plan option. Originally these plans had a deductible, coinsurance, a maximum out of pocket amount and some had separate benefits for hospitalization and surgery – often provided by Blue Cross with the major medical being offered by a traditional insurance carrier. Today, you don’t see people carrying one plan for hospitalization and another for other services and plans that are sold as major medical usually incorporate a network and enhanced benefits for seeing a network provider. So, they look more like a PPO plan without copayments.
Finally, we have the High Deductible Health Plans typically associated with Health Savings Accounts. These plans are just Major Medical Plans with deductibles, coinsurance and out of pocket limits that conform with the limits set forth by the Federal Government (Here is a nice HSA overview the US Office of Personnel Management Prepared for government workers).
To learn more about Health insurance quotes, affordable health insurance, affordable health insurance quotes, health insurance plans, visit Benepath.com.
Health insurance issues are always a significant concern for both employers and individuals. Headlines frequently describe the ever increasing cost of healthcare and insurance, and constantly changing rules can make obtaining proper coverage a complicated matter. Many insurance shoppers are turning to the internet for information that they can use to make informed decisions and compare plans, packages and rates. To this end, Benepath has designed a website that offers users a comprehensive resource such as insurance news, informative articles and a powerful interface that allows users to compare quotes within seconds.
“One of the most common complaints about insurance shopping that we’ve heard is that it can be confusing to compare one plan to another,” explains Clelland Green, Benepath’s President. “We have made it our mission to give insurance shoppers the power and knowledge they need to make the best healthcare decisions for their families.” Benepath accomplishes this with a user-friendly website, an easy-to-use health insurance quote system, and a wealth of information that every insurance buyer should know.
The site benefits both the insured and the uninsured. Those who are interested in saving money on their existing plans can quickly compare offers from leading insurers, while new insurance buyers can find the exact package that suits their needs and their situation. Employers who want to offer their employees the security of a comprehensive benefit plan can also request quotes that best suit their business and their budget.
About Benepath: Benepath was founded by Clelland Green in 2004 as a consulting firm to provide insurers and managed care organizations with advice regarding the development of consumer directed health plans (CDHs) such as HSAs, HRAs, and high deductible health plans. When it became clear that insurance brokers did not have a firm grasp of the CDH market, Benepath was founded with a unique business model to ensure that businesses and individuals learned about the importance of these products and how they could be a better fit than traditional health insurance plans including HMOs and PPOs.
Hmmmm…
The easy answer for most people is yes. But just like everything else, you get what you pay for and their are no “deals” to be had.
The biggest thing to watch out for are insurance policies that offer copays for doctors office visits and prescriptions that have a low price.
Why?
Office visits are cheap (relatively speaking) usually costing somewhere between $50 and $80 a visit – a practice in Southern California even made their medical costs easily available.
A broken leg can cost you $10,000 – $20,000 including the hospital visit, ER physician costs, follow-up visits, X-ray/MRI’s etc.
So an inexpensive plan with copays usually has very high cost sharing for hospitalizations, surgeries, etc. Some even have limits on the total amount they will cover for every time you visit the hospital or have a medical event.
Do you really want a health plan that gives you a $35 copay for an office visit but ends up costing you $10,000 when you have a real medical emergency?
This is all another good reason to use an agent.
Agents do not cost you a penny. That’s right – the premium you get from an agent will be the same as if you went to the health insurance company directly.
They represent lots of carriers.
And a good experienced agent knows the pitfalls of the plans and can help you make an informed decision on which medical insurance quote to buy.
Happy Hunting!
Before you buy a policy, you have to pick the health insurance plan to buy…
Too many people are trying to do this by themselves, thinking they can pick a health plan as easily as choosing a brand of peanut butter. More often than not, they end up very dissapointed with the results.Makes sense, but it just isn’t that easy.
My advice is to carefully choose an insurance agent and work with them to find the right coverage for you at the best possible price. Doing this is free and you directly benefit from the agent’s experience and expertise. Remember these men and women are doing this as a job and most insurance agents who sell individual health insurance focus on that market, meaning they are not really doing many other things than working with people like yourself to find health insurance.
So, they know which carriers pay their claims timely, they know which carriers have quality policies without lots of loopholes, they know which carriers have the best provider networks and so on. They also know the experience of their customers as they always get the call if things go wrong.
In future blogs I’ll give you some pointers on picking a good agent and on buying a policy yourself if you really don’t want an agent.
Happy Hunting!
New viruses take their toll physically and financially. Be prepared to deal with new medical problems by having affordable health insurance.
Lately it seems like every time you turn around there is a new bug making its way around the world. Some of them may be treated with existing medicines; some of them may not. Either way, if you wind up getting sick and need a lot of doctoring, and if you don’t have affordable health insurance that covers your needs, you may have a problem on your hands.
Let’s face it, if you come down with something new and difficult to treat, you will likely be paying out more money than you have budgeted. That’s due to the nature of our expensive health care system. Even if you do have a high deductible, you’re going to be in a pinch financially. What are your options? The main option is to find affordable health insurance that offers the kind of coverage you need. Start by working out your budget first and then working out what you need. With list in hand, hit the Internet and start searching for health insurance quotes.
Once you’ve found a few sites that you like and that are professional and up-to-date in their information, ask for quotes and then compare them with others you have. Go for about three or four quotes to get an idea of what is out there. Pare down your list to show you the affordable health insurance quotes.
Next, you comb through what each of those affordable plans offers. For this you may need to speak directly to a health insurance agent. Write out a complete list of things you want answered and go to town asking them all. It’s important that you know that what you may get is what you need. Once you have found a cost match, your benefits are very important. Be careful here because some of the quotes may look enticing financially, but don’t offer the cover you need. So, read the fine print.
Weed out what is not suited for you and keep going until you have a quote that offers good benefits and it works with your budget; something you can manage financially. While this might seem like a daunting process, it does pay off in the long run with the thing you needed the most – affordable health insurance.
Clelland Green is with Benepath.com, a leader in providing health insurance quotes. Benepath provides individuals, families, and businesses with affordable health insurance quotes in just a few mouse clicks. To learn more, visit https://www.benepath.com.
While a policy may be inexpensive, it may not be what you need. Check that out first and ask questions when you don’t understand why a policy is less expensive, but won’t suit your needs. An experienced health insurance broker will have the answer for you. For instance, the policy might onlyhaveminimal drug coverage and no cover for hospital stays, and you are asthmatic and need drugs fairly often and have the occasional hospital visits for attacks. That kind of policy would not work for you.
Ask for up to six quotes and then spend some time with them and figure out why the premiums are different. In some instances it may depend on your age, your health or whether or not you have pre-existing conditions. Typically, when you ask for quotes online, use the same information withevery company when you fill out the online forms. If you don’t, it gets even more confusing.
To learn more about Health insurance quotes, affordable health insurance, affordable health insurance quotes, health insurance plans, visit Benepath.com.
While you might be understandably angry with the health insurance company that denied you health insurance coverage, it isn’t the insurance company making up the rules about who gets accepted and who gets denied. That is done by the state department of insurance, and every state has one. They are the people who set the rates for insurance companies to do business in the state and don’t allow insurance companies to take too many high risk policyholders.
This entire time people have been thinking it’s the insurance companies themselves denying coverage, when really, insurance companies are bound by the rules laid down by the state department of insurance. What does this mean? It means that in order for insurance companies to stay in business, the rules need to state that they don’t take high risk policyholders or they won’t be in business for very long.
To learn more about Health insurance quotes, affordable health insurance, affordable health insurance quotes, health insurance plans, visit Benepath.com.
If you’ve visited a website and seen quotes that list something called the “preferred rate” it means that would be the price a person in good health would pay for a health insurance policy. If you have pre-existing conditions and are not in good health, you do not get the preferred rate. In fact, depending on your condition, you may be shelling out up to 50% more than the preferred rate to even get insurance – if the health insurance company agrees to insure you. If you want reasonable health insurance, stay in good shape, eat right and do all things in moderation.
There are other options such as approaching a larger company. Larger firms all underwrite differently and they may just take you, provided you pay a higher premium. If this doesn’t work, ask a health insurance agent about your state risk pool.
To learn more about Health insurance quotes, affordable health insurance, affordable health insurance quotes, health insurance plans, visit Benepath.com.
If you want to keep your workers happy, offer health insurance plans, either bundled together or standard.Today, many larger companies who have had to downsize are looking for ways to compensate their remaining workers. Health insurance plans are a good place. Thebest way to offer health insurance plans is to group them together with other worker benefits or offer them as standard for working for you.
Generally speaking, health insurance plans are good for a larger company with many employees. They also offer a whole lot of benefits, not the least of which is the tax benefits. Another benefit to the employer is it gives them clout in bargaining with the insurance provider because they’re buying health insurance policies in bulk.
To learn more about Health insurance quotes, affordable health insurance, affordable health insurance quotes, health insurance plans, visit Benepath.com.
This will make sense if you stop to think about it. If you are way overweight, have diabetes, do drugs or are a regular drinker, you certainly won’t be getting the OK for a health insurance policy. These types of behaviors are risky and high risk consumers are considered risky business propositions.
You’ll notice we mentioned risk at least three times in that last sentence. This is because an insurance company is a business and to stay in business, the companies don’t insure people with high risk habits because it costs them money.
The fact is you only get health insurance if the insurance company feels you’re a good risk. That means that they are betting they won’t have to pay.
out too much on you over the years.
This isn’t to say you might not get insurance, but if you do, your premiums will be really high and the coverage might not deal with your particular health issue(s).
To learn more about Health insurance quotes, affordable health insurance, affordable health insurance quotes, health insurance plans, visit Benepath.com.
