Types of
Family Health Insurance
To many of us, the health of our
family is of paramount
importance. However, if
our employers do not already
provide us with family health
insurance then we need to start
to think about how we can
provide for the health of our
family. In any such
consideration the issue of basic family health insurance is going
to need to be discussed.
Fee-for-services health
insurance. As its name indicates,
fee-for-services health
insurance is a basic indemnity
policy. In short, with
fee-for-services health
insurance you make a claim when you need to, and your
health insurance provider then
deducts this sum from your
pre-agreed health insurance sum.
The upside of fee-for-services
health insurance is that you can
visit any healthcare provider
you want and then you make a
claim – although you should read
the health insurance policy
carefully as some types of
treatment are not covered.
The major downside of
fee-for-services health
insurance is the cost, which
traditionally is very high.
Unlike other types of health
insurance which have come on the
market since the conception of
fee-for-services health
insurance, premiums can be high
and the only way to reduce this
high premium charges is to
increase your deductibles.
However, careful consideration
does need to be given to
increasing your deductibles as
this can lead to you being left
with a hefty bill if you need
hospital treatment.
Health Maintenance
Organization health insurance
(HMOs). HMOs are
a more recent addition to family
health care insurance and are
popular because they’re the
cheapest – in premiums - type of
health care insurance you can
purchase for your family.
Obviously, whenever you buy
cheap insurance you usually find
that you have certain
restrictions as to exactly what
you can do – and HMOs are no
different in this respect, so
you have to be careful. In particular, HMOs
usually designate certain
healthcare providers who you are
allowed to visit and if, even in
the case of an emergency, you
visit a healthcare provider who
is not approved by the HMO,
you’ll be left to pick-up the
entire tab yourself.
Other types of health care
insurance. In response to the
high costs associated with
fee-for-services health care
insurance and the restrictions
of HMOs have come other types of
health care insurance. Notable
in this are schemes such as
Preferred Provider Organizations
(PPOs), which, again, involves a
network of particular doctors
you are required to visit.
However, where PPOs differ from
HMOs is that you may be able to
claim for some reimbursement if
you visit a healthcare provider
outside of the network of PPO
healthcare providers – depending
on the health care policy your
family have.
So if you are looking for family
health care, please make sure
you give special thought to this
and make sure that you are not
one of the 40 million Americans
today walking around with no
health care insurance in the
eternal hope that nothing
unexpected happens.
More health insurance
advice, tips, and information
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