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Affordable Health Insurance Plans

By: EconomyWatch Content Date: 18 February 2010

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With medical assistance becoming expensive and medicines emulating the cost-behavior of precious metals, affordable health insurance plans have become the demand of the day. Available in lower premiums, these plans do not pressurize your budget and offers financial protection as and when it is needed.

Remember, while picking affordable health insurance plans, the cost should never be the sole factor. Other factors such as coverage, doctor network, out-of-pocket and co-payment should be compared as well. Naturally, you won’t want a plan that is affordable and does not offer much coverage and thereby, forces all the major payments on you.

Be Careful With Affordable Health Insurance Plans

A mistake that many people do is to not study the contract. They end up buying just an affordable plan with no real coverage. A smarter approach is to conduct a comparative study of the entire plan. An insurance plan that offers $2, 00,000 of coverage for just $500 monthly premium is far better than one offering $1, 50,000 coverage for $450 worth of monthly premiums, even when the latter is more economical.

The underline is to not let the cost influence you into buying the plan. Study the following factors closely before making any decision:

Deductible: This is the total amount of money that needs to be paid before the insurers offer you the coverage. In simpler terms, this is the cost of getting the medical coverage.
Co-payment: This is the fixed dollar amount that the insured must pay for specific kind of medical treatments.
Coinsurance: Unlike co-payment where the dollar amount is fixed, insurance plans specify coinsurance in percentage of the total bill. Usually, co-insurance is around 20% of the total bill.
Out-of-pocket cost: It is technically any amount that is paid by the insured person to the insurance company. It includes co payments, deductibles etc.

Though, health insurance can take care of medical expenses, it is equally important to focus on preventive measures. Therefore, buying managed healthcare, mainly through PPOs (Preferred Provider Organization) and HMOs (Health Maintenance Organization) can assist you to get a dedicated network of doctors that include specialist and general practitioners. Remember, both the plans focus on preventive care and offer coverage for regular medical visits as well.