Health Insurance Policy| What To Consider When Purchasing A Health Insurance Policy

When purchasing a health insurance policy you have to consider several things. Health insurance is different from any other kind of insurance policy. For example if you purchase life insurance, catastrophic insurance, automobile insurance, or even homeowner’s property insurance you do not immediately expect to collect benefits. You only purchase these to be available in case of emergency. If unfortunately you have to face the event you had the foresight to insure against, you or your beneficiary get the contracted sum of money as the insurance benefit. However, health insurance requires different considerations as you expect to use it right away.
With health insurance you do not get a lump sum of cash. Instead your medical providers get paid through your insurance company. That is why you have to consider the providers who accept the insurance plan before purchasing your plan. You want to know how good the doctors included in the network are, where the physicians are located, and what kind of financial protection you will get with the health insurance.
Which policy Is Best
When picking which policy is best you start off by looking at the list of physicians and hospitals in the network. This is important because you want to go to a doctor, physician, or hospital you are comfortable with. You also want to make sure they are close to where you live. If you buy an insurance policy, but go to doctors outside of your network you could get charged a price as much as ten times higher than going to an in-network doctor.
Price doesn’t just matter when it comes to going outside of your network. It also matter when it comes to choosing the health insurance plans. For example Preferred Provider Organizations (PPO’s) allow you to have a larger selection of physicians and medical providers, but your premiums are higher than other plans, such as Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs).
HMOs are a group of medical providers who also work full time for the HMO. They provide service for the HMO for a flat monthly fee and they typically own their own hospitals. They are either considered independent or they have a contract to provide unlimited service for a fee. With this kind of health insurance plan you can only see physicians in the HMO network.
Then there is indemnity plans where you can choose any medical provider, pay them, and then give the receipt to your insurance company. However with an indemnity plan you only get a percentage of your money back from the insurance company and you get charged very high deductibles.
The best way to choose your Health Insurance policy is not only by how much money you will be charged, but the claims paying history of the insurance company, their approval process when you have to undergo any major testing, and of course, you should look at the list of best doctors in your area. Then find out if the doctors are in their network.
Financial Protection
Once you choose policies for your health insurance plan, the next step is to look at the financial protection you are getting. For the financial protection you look at the doctor’s visit co-pay or discount, prescription co-pay or discount, annual deductible, OOP max (co-insurance plus deductible), lifetime maximum coverage, premium, and whether the plan is HSA qualified.
The doctor’s visit co-pay is the amount of money you will have to pay per visit. This could range from $10 to $30 per visit, it may also be different for primary care physician versus specialists. However, if you choose the plan has a discount method instead of a co-pay, you may pay 30 to 50 percent off a $100 fee per visit. The prescription is similar. With a co-pay you may pay $10 or $20 depending on the type of drug you get. The discount of the drug depends on how much the pharmacy charges. With some health insurance plans such as an HSA plan, you don’t have a co-pay for the doctor’s, rather, you pay the provider out of pocket and that payment goes towards your deductible, and after you satisfy your deductible, then the insurance company starts paying 80% or 100% of the charges for the calendar year. These plans normally have a lower premium. The doctor’s fees that you pay out of pocket is normally the insurance plan’s negotiated rate, so it is lower than their normal fee.
The annual deductible is the amount you have to pay before the Insurance company pays the providers or reimburses you for your claims. With traditional health insurance companies your deductibles are between250 and 10,000, and the most popular plans are $2500 deductible plans where the doctor’s visits have co-pays and the deductible is for major testing and hospital stays. Then the out of pocket maximum comes into play. This is the coinsurance plus the deductible. Your co-insurance is the annual expenses your health insurance expects you to pay before they start paying their portion of the co-insurance.
Submitting Your Application
Submitting your application for a health insurance plan is the most important part of the process. With individual health insurance, there is an underwriting process and not all applicants are accepted, whereas, with group insurance, all employees are approved, and the Insurance companies, charge each employee in the plan, the rate based on the health conditions of all the employees, therefore healthy employees share the rates being charged because of a riskier employee.
With individual health insurance applications, the insurance company is not obligated to insure you. There are insurance companies that accept some pre-existing conditions and others that don’t. The underwriting process for some is more stringent than others. Also, even for a highly reputable, health insurance company, the physician network may be limited for small towns. There are numerous considerations when it comes to applying for individual/family health plans. The application process is extremely important and there are several reasons, why your application may be rejected. Be honest about your health conditions, because they will run a ‘Medical Insurance Board’ search and a ‘Pharmacy’ search, and will surely reject the application if you provided incorrect information.
The easiest and the most efficient way to apply for a health insurance plan is to contact an independent online health insurance agent such as NetInsuranceQuote.com.
Why go through www.netinsurancequote.com to get your health insurance coverage? Let us count the reasons!
Netinsurancequote.com agents are independent health insurance agents
- We do not charge the applicants a fee for the expert service we provide.
- We are licensed in the states that we offer our services.
- We provide you with multiple quotes, and help you compare the benefits offered by each plan.
- Can assess your situation and match the best available health insurance plan available for you, saving you time and effort that you would need to expend in learning about each plan and trying to read through to compare the benefits or networks on your own.
- Assist you in completing your health insurance application, offer expert advice and answer your questions regarding the process.
- Be the liaison between you and the insurance company and keep you updated and informed regarding the application process all the way through approval of your application and receipt of the policy.
- In the unfortunate event of rejection of your application, we will find other ways to cover you but always with a reputable insurance carrier. When you apply on your own, you may have to constantly try to get in touch with the insurance company to confirm the meanings of terms listed or for clarification of the questions being asked, and the chances of making mistakes are high. Mistakes on the application normally results in delays and possible rejection. You save time and effort by getting our free assistance, we will inform you of all the requirements, explain the questions and the required disclosures and contact the insurance company on your behalf to determine the progress and receipt of any required documentation. Our assistance is free and with our expertise, we take away your burden of learning the insurance company’s requirements and frees up your time as you do not need to contact the insurance company to get progress or updates.
- You do not see a plan that fits your budget? We will do our best to find a plan that will provide comparable benefits for a lower premium. This is possible with plans that have a higher out of pocket maximum. The benefits, the physicians and hospital network are the same as the high premium plans but you may have more out of pocket costs. It is a mistake to not buy the coverage because you cannot afford the high premium plans, because the goal of health insurance is to limit your financial risk. The high deductible plans do just that, except you agree to a higher out of pocket maximum, but once you have satisfied that requirement, the insurance company bears the burden of the medical costs therefore your exposure is limited. Anyone who has had to go through any major procedure or had to be hospitalized knows how fast the costs add up. Get a plan you can afford today, you can upgrade it later.
- As independent agents, we represent multiple health insurance companies and you can be sure that we are going to find the policy that best suits your situation and your budget.
- Call us today at 1-800-559-9847 or go to our website at www.netinsurancequote.com to start the process to Get Insured. Calling us and letting us assist you with this essential coverage is a win-win situation as you can get our experience, efficiency and expertise for FREE. It is your health, protect it Today when you are healthy and can get best coverage available.