Information About Health Insurance

Friday, October 09, 2009

Information About Health Insurance

Make sure you understand how your health insurance works!

Health insurance is one of the most important types of insurance you can buy. At some point, everyone requires treatment from a healthcare professional. With the exponentially increasing cost of such services, health insurance is an extremely important necessity.

FUNCTION

The purpose of health insurance is to provide payment for necessary medical treatments that would otherwise be much too expensive for the average person to afford. Policies will pay the physician and the facility for their services and limit your overall expenses for care.

BENEFITS

The benefit of having health insurance is that your out-of-pocket expenses for treatment that you receive will be significantly less than if you were forced to pay the entire cost alone. The most common type of health insurance plan is an HMO, and the bulk of treatment costs are covered after you pay a small copay and/or deductible.

MISCONCEPTIONS

Health insurance does not always pay for 100% of the cost of treatment you receive, and in some cases certain types of treatments are entirely excluded from coverage under your health plan. The type of health insurance plan you have will often determine what types of treatment are covered and how much it will cost you.

WARNINGS

Not all health insurance policies are the same. Many policies have specific limitations on how much the insurance company will pay for certain types of treatment, leaving you responsible for the cost of that care.

EXPERT INSIGHT

Review the benefits that you have under your current health insurance plan and become very familiar with any restrictions or coverage limitations. If you are investigating the purchase of health insurance, examine every detail of the policy you are considering and make sure you are comfortable with what it does or does not provide benefits for.