Health Insurance is basically a plan that is devised to benefit you or bear all your medical-related expenses. There are various public as well as private sources that provide health insurance plans for the entire family in the United States. Also, there are several social welfare plans for the citizens of the country that are popularly known as Medicaid. This program provides assistance to the ones in need, who cannot afford to have a health coverage plan for themselves and their family as well.
If a specific policy in your health insurance doesn’t cover your cause, you may have to make individual purchases. There are several insurance companies in the United Nations that have to offer you different benefits at different price values. However, you need to stick to the one that best suits yours as well as your family’s needs. Here are a few tips that you must keep in mind before you make a purchase of individual plans in the US:
- Look for each program precisely and make sure to read the context between the lines
- Your policy must cover you from expensive medical costs
- Check closely what the policy states –the day of coverage, what issues are covered and what are excludes, also have an account of the waiting period
- The single disease health insurances could be particularly tricky
Different healthcare plans offered in the US:
1-PPO or Preferred Provider Organization: It is the group health insurance policy with which you can make use of a network of preferred hospitals, or a group of doctors and all of the expenses shall be covered under the PPO health insurance plan. The members can avail the services of the preferred network of doctors and healthcare centers at a discount price. Within the system covered by the PPO plan, you are allowed to see any doctor even for a trivial cause.
2-HMO or Health Maintenance Organization: In the HMO plan, the members might have a lower-out-of-the-pocket expenditure. However, they have the flexibility to see any doctor from any of the hospitals of their choice. Under the HMO plan, you need to select a Primary Care Physician, who is further going to refer you to your respective specialists.
3-POS or Point of Service: In the POS plan, the features of HMO and PPO are combined. You will have to choose a Primary Care Physician for yourself provided from the network of doctors and hospitals covered under POS. If you are going to make use of the services that are referred by your PCP (Primary Care Physician), you will have better chances of being covered under your insurance policy.
Bottom Line:
Although there are several health insurance policies available in the US, these three types –PPO, POS, and HMO are best suited for family insurance plans. However, you can explore your options further and choose the one policy that best caters to your needs. But, remember to be careful about the tricky policies offered by healthcare companies.