Health Insurance
Individual health care insurance provides coverage for only one individual, or family. In general, individual plans are more expensive than group insurance. You can obtain individual plans directly from a company who offers them. The company with whom you apply will evaluate you from a health standpoint, in terms of how much risk you present to them. Usually, they'll provide a questionnaire for you to fill out, asking various questions about your current and past health history. They will determine your risk accordingly, from which a premium will be generated.
Things to Look For
Most individual plans fall under managed health care plans. Under this, you can opt for an HMO, PPO, or POS plan.
Guaranteed Renewable
Your insurer cannot cancel your coverage if you become sick. If you continue to pay your insurance premium, coverage continues.
If available, group insurance is generally a better option, since it is usually more comprehensive and less expensive than individual insurance. However, individual coverage is ultimately better than being uninsured in the event of illness or injury. Although you may think you can do without health insurance, you are taking a major risk if you choose not to get coverage. An unexpected illness or serious injury can put you and your family under financial stress.
In a group insurance situation, the provisions of the policy are negotiated between the insurer and master policy owner (usually an employer or association). With individual insurance, you are directly in control of your policy. You can negotiate to have certain provisions included or excluded, and you can often choose your deductible amount and co-payment percentage. Keep in mind, however, that these things will have an effect on your premiums.
Group Health
The continuing growth in the number of insurance plans where the employer or union assumes all or part of the responsibility for paying claims made the nations employers a principal bearer of the financial risks of illness and non-job-related injury in 1990. Group health insurance is better than individual in most cases- your premium will be lower, and your options greater. If you cannot receive group insurance coverage through your employer, then you'll need to seek out an individual plan.
2 basic group plans
- fully insured
- MPP (minimum premium plan)
Under fully insured, your employer accepts all the risk for paying your claims.
Under MPP, your employer pays up to a certain specified maximum; after which point, the insurer pays. Most of these plans offer several types of coverage:
- basic coverage
- major medical coverage
- basic, plus major medical coverage
Majority of these plans fall under major medical, and don't contain a basic hospital benefit for hospital related expenses.
Please contact us for more information.
