Health Insurance should be a top priority in our lives. Especially now that we are in a middle of pandemic. But do we really understand how health insurance works ?
Today, we are going to tackle health insurance and how to get the best affordable health insurance plans in the market.
Health Insurance is a safety net, wherein it covers your medical expenses from unexpected / serious illness or injuries. Health care can be expensive as the year goes by, and having health insurance can help people avoid high medical expenses.
It’s important that you understand all the available options before making a decision. Let’s take a look at all the things you need to consider in order to get the best affordable health insurance plans for you.
First, What are the available types? Exploring the different types and choosing which way you want to enroll are always the first step in choosing a health plan. There are different ways to enroll, examples of these are employer sponsored, federal government or the individual health insurance or family plan.
Employer sponsored – A coverage that employers give to their employees.
Federal government – Example of this is Medicare. It’s national health insurance that operates differently than most of the common plans. They also offer free health insurance, when requirements are met.
Individual Health Insurance or Family – This plan best fits for students and / or self-employed.
If you are looking for best affordable health insurance plans. Same time, you only visit primary care once a year, HMOs are the best for you. But if you want to choose a specific health care EPO or PPO plan is more suitable for you. The only problem with EPO or PPO is it may cost you a lot of money in the future.
In order to fully understand health insurance, you need to take note of some important keywords:
Copayment – or Co-pay, is a fixed amount or rate in which you pay on top of the premium every time you visit your doctor, urgent care, or prescription purchase.
Coinsurance – a fixed percentage of your medical bill that you need to pay before the insurance company pays their part. The example of this is, you need to pay 20% while the insurance company pays 80%.
Deductible – an amount that the insured is paying for the covered services before the insurance plan starts to pay.
But how much health insurance usually cost ?
There’s no accurate answer to this, since it vary differently from one person to another. Also there’s a lot of factors that affects the cost these includes: deductibles, coinsurance, monthly premium and etc. Your personal choice on a plan and the coverage options is also a factor that affects the price.
Things to remember when looking for affordable health insurance.
Premium – An amount of money you need to pay in order to get an insurance policy. It can be paid differently depending on the policy. Take note that failure to pay premium may result to cancellation of policy.
Metal Categories – It is an indication of how the bills are spilt between you and the insurer. It consists of 4 categories.
- Bronze – Lowest monthly premium, but high deductible. Remember that you have a higher cost when you seek medical attention. And it’s only suitable for worst-case scenarios. 60-40 split between you and the company. You pay 40% while the company will pay for 60% of health care costs.
- Silver – Lower costs when you seek for medical care. A 70-30 split, the insurance plan will pay 70% of the health care costs and you pay the remaining 30%.
- Gold – If you visit your doctor often, gold plan is best for you. It has a higher monthly premium but lower deductible. It consist of 80-20 split, wherein 80% of the medical costs will shoulder by the insurance company and you pay 20% only.
- Platinum – Highest monthly premium. This plan suits you if you constantly needs medical attention. Most of your needs will surely covered by the insurance company with only minimal point-of-care costs.
Out-of-Pocket Maximum – It’s a limit on the amount of money in a single year that you have to pay for covered health care. If you meet that maximum, your health plan will come to cover 100% of your covered health care costs for the rest of the year.