Types of Health Insurance Plans

Health insurance to its employees. It forms a part of their monthly salary or is given as a perk. But most companies do not make such offers and there are a lot of employees who have to seek individual health insurance for their needs.

It is essential to realize that insurance is very important because not being insured means a lot of expense to be incurred in case you are faced with a sudden medical emergency that might require hospitalization and tests. Fees for doctor visits and other related expenses will create a huge dent in your bank account and might indeed finish off all your savings.

As we get older, we are prone to age-related diseases. Being prepared with insurance cover in advance is not only a wise decision it is also a sound choice to make in terms of finance.

Individual health insurance plans are available in two types: Indemnity and Managed Care Plans. There is only two major differences between the two plans. How much you will pay as premium and the method of paying your bills.

Indemnity individual health insurance is comparatively more expensive than Managed Care and that is the reason most people opt for the Managed Health Care Plans. In terms of benefits and risk covered, the indemnity individual health insurance plan is the one that covers the basics of health more comprehensively. It is also the oldest form of health insurance.

Indemnity plan requires you to pay a part of the medical costs with the insurance provider paying the balance remaining. The most availed plan is the 80-20 where you are required to pay 80% of the medical costs incurred and the insurance provider pays the remaining 20%. Premiums are charged accordingly. The higher the amount you commit to pay, the lower will be the monthly premium charged by the insurance provider. The company decides the rate of compensation on the basis of average fees charged by doctors and physicians in your area for medical services. You either pay the fees upfront and claim from the insurance company later or have your doctor send the bill to them directly.

Managed health care plans are more popular because they are more affordable as compared to indemnity plans. The premium rates are lower too but you are not at liberty to choose your physician or service provider and have limited choice.

Recession impacts health insurance

An artice in Time (November 13, 2008) predicts that the number of uninsured Americans will rise sharply to above 50 million within the next few months. This pessimistic prediction assumes that many employers will drop their group health plans to combat the recession by the end of the 2008 calendar year and that many of these individuals will not obtain alternate health insurance on their own. The prediction also assumes that employers would drop health coverage altogether rather than switch to one of the low cost limited beneft plans now available. We see no reason to support these assumptions.

The number of uninsureds has actually decreased slightly over the past two years as more affordable insurance plans have been introduced to the market according to our "Covering the Unisured: 2008 Update" report. The cost of employer provided health insurance coverage for an employee without dependents is about $6,000 per year and COBRA coverage cost slightly more. But the cost of individually purchased short term medical insurance averages only about $1,800 per year. About 72% of Americans currently qualify for this type of low cost short term medical insurance. (Short term medical insurance is not available to the residents of four states or individuals with serious pre-existing medical conditions).

Given this viable and affordable alternate coverage possibility, it seems unlikely that more than an additional four million people would choose to go without any health insurance in 2009.