|
|
Health Insurance
America may have one of the best health care services in the world,
but health insurance can be one of the biggest outgoings in a family’s
monthly budget. This is why it’s important to choose the health care
provider carefully, and using a comparison engine such as the one here,
is one of the ways to start saving today!
A number of health insurance programs are currently run and heavily
subsidized by the government, and these include Medicare, Medicaid, the
Children’s Health Insurance Program and the Veteran’s Health
Administration. Many employers also supply health insurance for their
employees, the employees’ families and retirees. Many of these health
plans can have “supplemental insurance” sold on which aims to cover
some of the gaps in these systems at a lower price than full coverage
insurance.
However a large and growing proportion of the population are not
covered by their employer or the government and in the end will have to
cover them. Although about 58% of Americans have some type of health
insurance, about 9% have individual health insurance.
The range of products available through individual health insurance is
similar to those provided by employers although most people who choose
individual insurance tend to have higher levels of cost saving measures
such as opt-outs and deductible expenses.
Self employed people can claim their health insurance and health
insurance for dependent members of their family, as a tax deduction.
This has the effect of quite dramatically lowering health insurance
costs, particularly for higher earners. Employees can not usually get
health insurance as a tax deduction.
Premiums tend to vary by age, gender and location. In some states
insurers are allowed to set premiums by health status, and so people
with bad health habits such as smoking or lack of exercise can end up
with higher premiums. It also means that people with previous health
conditions also have to pay higher premiums, and some of these people
can have such high premiums that they’ve been called “uninsurable”.
One advantage of individual insurance is that it offers “guaranteed
renewability“, so that if a healthy person were to later develop health
problems the health insurance company would still have to keep that
person on at the same premiums.
There are a number of different insurance plans in the United States.
The traditional model was to pay a certain amount if the insured person
developed a condition. This meant that the insurance company is not
tied to the hospital and the insured person can choose where she gets
her medical treatment. These are known as health indemnity or fee for
service plans,
Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans are prepayment plans which are
offered either by groups of doctors (Blue Shield) or hospitals (Blue
Cross). Instead of reimbursing money to the policy holder if they fell
ill, they directly provide the service to them. This has the advantage
that if there is a cost overrun then the insurance plan will cover it.
However there is no way to shop around for the best services.
Health Maintenance Organizations, or HMOs, are a fast growing part of
the health insurance market. The individual contracts with the HMO who
then act as a gatekeeper to the health care providers, or what is
commonly known as a “panel“. Unlike the traditional insurer the
individual does not have a complete choice, but unlike the Blue Cross
plans the individual is not tied to a particular hospital. HMOs have
been pioneers in “managed care” which aims to cut the cost of
healthcare by emphasising preventative health and incentives for more
efficient use of healthcare.
There are two types of non medical insurance that are commonly seen
as health insurance. The first is disability income insurance, which
replaces a proportion of the policy holder’s income if they can not
work for health reasons. The other is long term care insurance which
pays for the costs of care services needed due to age or disability.
Like all big spending decisions, these kinds of health insurance
should be compared before being bought, and the comparison search
engine here will help you choose the right health insurance plan.
|
|
|
|
