| By Brian Stevens
Looking to buy health insurance? Want to know
how to get inexpensive health insurance with
a reliable company? Here's how ...
Types of Health Insurance
There are four basic types of health plans:
Indemnity Plans - These plans let you choose
your own doctor, and it pays all of your medical
bills up to a specified daily amount for a specified
number of days.
Indemnity plans are the most flexible health
care plans, but they are the most expensive
plans and they involve the most paperwork.
HMOs (Health Maintenance Organizations) - With
these plans you pay a monthly premium to join
a network of physicians and hospitals. You must
choose a primary care physician within the network
who oversees your medical care.
HMOs are the most restrictive of all the health
insurance plans, but they're also the cheapest
plans. Co-payments are either very low ($5 to
$10) or are free.
PPOs (Preferred Provider Organizations) - With
these plans you also pay a monthly premium to
join a network of physicians and hospitals.
You can choose to see whatever doctor you prefer,
but if he or she is not part of the network
you'll need to pay an extra fee.
PPOs cost a little more than HMOs, but a lot
of people prefer them because they are less
restrictive. Co-payments average $5 to $10.
POS (Point of Service plans) - These plans
are a combination of HMOs and POSs. You must
choose a primary care physician to oversee your
healthcare treatment, but you can see a non-network
physician without having to pay extra fees if
your primary care physician refers you to him.
POS plans cost a little more the PPOs and HMOs,
but are more flexible. Co-payments are about
the same as for HMOs and PPOs.
Which Plan is Best?
In order to determine which health insurance
plan will best meet your needs, you need to
find out the following:
* Does the plan cover the services you need?
* What co-pays, deductibles, and coinsurances
does the plan have?
* How much freedom do you have in choosing
your own physician?
* What is the waiting period for pre-existing
conditions?
Inexpensive Health Insurance
In order to get the best rates on health insurance
you need to comparison shop. Thanks to the Internet,
you don't have to spend hours on end calling
local insurance companies or surfing single-company
websites to get quotes. Now you can go to an
insurance comparison website, fill our a simple
questionnaire, and get quotes from multiple
comapnies.
The best comparison sites only deal with A-rated
companies so you know the company you choose
will be reliable and will give you good service.
Theses sites also have an insurance expert on
hand to answer any insurance questions you may
have. (See link below.)
Visit http://www.LowerRateQuotes.com/health-insurance.html
or click on the following link to get inexpensive
health insurance quotes from top-rated companies
and see how much you can save. You can get more
insurance tips in their Articles section.
The author, Brian Stevens, is a former insurance
agent and financial consultant who has written
a number of articles on how to get inexpensive
health insurance.
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