Health Insurance Basics

By Jeff Cline

The importance of health insurance in this day and age cannot be overlooked. One main reason why health care insurance has become very important is that health care has become very expensive over the last few years. This can be attributed to the advancements that have taken place in the field of medical sciences. New technologies have led to development of new methods that can be used for treating various kinds of diseases. To bear medical expenses these days has become more of a problem for people these days.

health insuranceis a type of insurance that pays for health care expenses. All medical expenses are covered by this insurance. This type of insurance can be provided by government funded agencies or by private companies who deal in the business of insurance. People may purchase this insurance individually or on a group basis.

Individual health care insurance covers the medical expenses of the individual who has purchased the insurance. Group insurance policies are more common in organizations and firms where a single insurance policy covers the medical expenses of a group of employees of an organization.

Health insurance basically involves a contract between the person getting insured and an insurance company which may be a private firm, a government agency or a non profit organization that deals in selling insurance plans. The main purpose of an insurance company is to evaluate the cost of medical expenses that a person might incur in a given period of time. On the basis of this evaluation and the needs of the person buying the insurance plan, a financial plan is developed. This financial plan may be the one which pays a premium every month. The financial plan may even be developed for a year where a tax is paid annually. The type of financial plan developed is basically the discretion of the insurance company and its policies.

Health insurance can be of different types. Employment based health care plans are for employees of an organization.

Direct purchase plans are individual health care insurance plans. These plans can be purchased by any individual. And is individually underwritten.

Comprehensive health care insurance plans are the ones which pay a percentage of the medical expenses or the expenses which are left or not paid for after the insured person has paid some of the amount of the medical expenses. Also known as Catastrophic coverage. Meaning mostly used to cover major medical occurances.

The scheduled health care insurance plan are the ones which cover the health care expenses which are incurred on a daily basis by the insured persons. Such as; well visits, sick visits and routine exams. Most commonly known as PPO or HMO plans. - 33372

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