Medical Discount Plans Vs Health Insurance
Medical Discount Plans Vs Health Insurance
With rising Healthcare costs business owners and families face an ever increasing dilemma with Health Insurance. Everyone wants Health Insurance, but not every business and family can afford paying for it.
A new option is gaining acceptance and popularity. They are called Medical Discount Plans also known as Health Discount Plans. Over the last few years they have evolved into an insurance backed, benefit rich alternative to Health Insurance. Since these plans are new there is a lot of confusion and misrepresentations about them. In this article I will compare their key features with Health Insurance.
Let's start with Health Insurance. These plans can vary greatly as can their cost. The cost depends on the insurance company's financial liability and the best measures of exposure centers around deductibles, out of pocket insurance maximums and life time policy limits. So if you want a policy with low deductibles and out of pocket maximums you can expect to pay a lot for your insurance. The upside is that if a medical emergency happens your additional expenses will be low.
The average cost in the US for a low deductible policy for a family of four varies from $1000 to $2000 per month. Clearly most families and businesses can't afford this expense and because of this many Americans have policies with medium to high deductibles.
A high deductible plan for the same family can run $400 to $600 per month. This type of plan is much better than nothing, but creates financial liabilities that many families can't afford. With this type of plan it's common to see deductibles from $5000 to $10,000 and out of pocket maximums of another $5000 to $15,000. This means if you have a medical emergency, like breaking a leg that costs $6000 you have to pay for most or all of it. If another similar costing emergency happens to another family member it's your cost again.
In comes the Medical Discount Plan. Like health insurance these plans can vary greatly depending on coverage. Some plans are just discounts you receive by using medical services from providers in the network. Discounts can be 10% to 40% off.
The better plans have insurance backed benefits. One plan by American Workers Insurance Services has a complete line of benefits backed by "A" rated insurers such as intensive care, hospitalization, doctor and dentist visits, critical illness, prescriptions, accidental death and dismemberment and accidental injury to name just the key benefits. This plan is offered, in most states, to families of any size for only $219 per month.
Not only is that a low and competitive cost, but it also comes without the deductible headache. The only deductible is $100 on the accidental injury benefit. Let's go back to our health insurance example of breaking our leg.
With this plan your total cost would be $100, not the majority of the $6000 and this is how it works. Let's assume you go to a medical service provider in network and you receive a 20% discount which is very realistic. That leaves a balance of $4800. Next you pay your deductible of $100 and then the plan pays the remaining balance of $4700. Just as important if you or any family member breaks another leg you are still only looking at the $100 deductible. Most families would say that's far better than dealing with high deductibles and that's why Medical Discount Plans are gaining such popularity.
There are no perfect solutions to covering families for medical emergencies, but Medical Discount Plans are an option every business and family that wants to save money should look into. You can learn much more about Medical Discount Plans that fit your business or family at BetterHealthCoverageOptions .
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