Learn More About Medical Insurance

Everyone deserves  to have some sort of protection from the high expenses associated with medical problems.  It is hard to ignore how important avoiding sickness is to our overall happiness.  It is also hard to ignore how important maintaining good health is to allowing us to do our part in life. 

Because one never can know what fortunes will befall him or her, it is very important to have health insurance to cover regular examinations.  This is vital because prevention can go a long way towards helping us avoid emergency situations.  A good medical insurance plan should also be able to take care of the cost of the major care you'd need after a stroke or other medical emergency.

All individuals become sick sooner or later.  Some fall victim to an accident.  The costs for the health expenses incurred due to these occurrences carry the possibility of depleting one's life savings, and in some cases, causing the individual to file for bankruptcy.  Medical costs are on the rise, and these expenses show no signs of reversing the current trend.  This is why it is so crucial to carry medical insurance.

Some may say that the cost of medical insurance itself is skyrocketing and that is the reason they choose not to purchase it.  However, at the first sign of medical troubles, he or she will find that not buying medical insurance in the end is much more expensive.  A medical bill for a one day procedure can be ten thousand dollars or more.  Not having health insurance can be much more expensive than having so called expensive coverage.

You can keep your premiums down by opting for a high deductible health insurance policy.  These plans can pay for bigger expenses.  These medical insurance plans don't pay for most small expenses.  The benefit is that the costs are low.

Health insurance was not created to help one pay for minor things, such as routine physician's office visits.  Medical insurance real purpose is to cover surgeries and emergency room treatments and care for long-term illnesses. 

The two major types of medical insurance are Indemnity and managed care.  As time goes on more and more indemnity plans are being replaced by managed care.  However, both types are still around and can be purchased in most areas.

An indemnity plan is one in which the insured has an increased flexibility of providers from which he or she can choose.  As long as the treatment needed is covered in his or her plan, then the coverage typically pays all but 20% of the bill after a deductible.  Before health care reform one of the main drawbacks of this type of coverage was that it might only pay for illnesses and accidents; there may not have been coverage for physicals or other preventive care.  The health care reform mandates that went into effect in September of 2010 changed this for most plans purchased after that date. 

Managed Care insurance is much different than an Indemnity plan.  On a Managed Care plan, the individual is very limited in the choice of doctors that he or she can see.  There may only be coverage if the plan authorizes the treatment.  If the certain treatment that one needs is not covered, he or she will have to pay out-of-pocket for those services. 

Although medical insurance is both costly and confusing, it is critical to have.  No good financial plan is complete without coverage for a potential hole in your pocket as large as the potential cost for health care.