subject: How To Compare Medical Insurance Plans [print this page] Choosing the right health care insurance policy can be complicated. Health Care insurance contracts appear to be so dissimilar judging them is exceedingly tricky. Looking at the three major components of your coverage one at a time can help clear the fog. The three areas to consider are coverage, network of doctors and premiums.
To understand the benefits of a health care insurance policy, you must know what expected benefits are not included. The company will usually display prominently the benefits, but will make it harder for you to find the exclusions and limitations. However, to make the right decision, you must know what expected benefits are not included. You should be able to request or simply download an outline of coverage that lists the exclusions and limitations. This information us usually in the back pages of the document that explains the policy.
Make sure that any policy that you might purchase has a good or excellent lifetime benefit limit. The best policies have no limitation in this area, but there are many good plans that have limits. When looking at policies that have lifetime limitations, always think about how long you are planning to keep the policy and consider how inflation will affect the coverage available.
Plans with annual benefit limitations are not recommended. The yearly caps on these contracts can be easily exhausted by the expenses associated with a heart attack or a major car accident.
When you have found a few policies that have good coverage you should start looking at what are generically called cost shares. Cost share include deductibles, coinsurance and co-pays.
You should take the time to understand the following terms: deductible, coinsurance, out of pocket maximum and co-pays. These terms are sometimes defined differently in different policies. A deductible can be based on a calendar year or a policy year. An out-of-pocket maximum may include your deductible or it may not. Be aware of the differences if any when judging contracts.
When looking at cost shares, always take the premiums of the policy into consideration. Often a policy that seems to be a bad option because of its high deductible is a good choice when you consider how low the cost is.
The network of doctors and hospitals is a major factor that you should research when you are shopping for medical care insurance. If your plan does not include a hospital in your area and/or does not include physicians in your vicinity it is probably not worth considering.
Having a network hospital near both, your workplace and house are ideal since you never know when an emergency might strike. It may be less of an issue to have network doctors near both your job and your house.
The cost of your healthcare insurance policy is of course important. However when considering premiums, you must also consider the coverage and the cost shares.
You might easy to get baffled when selecting health care insurance contracts. However, by focusing on the benefits, the network and the premiums separately you may find it a little easier to find the right health care insurance policy for your family.
by: Alston Balkcom
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