Where to Find Inexpensive Individual Health Care Plans
By: Brian Stevens | Posted: 08th February 2008
There are all kinds of health care plans on the market today including comprehensive medical plans, managed health care plans, and a host of specialized plans. This article explains how to find an inexpensive health care plan that fits your needs.
What kinds of health care plans are available?
Health care plans fall under two basic categories - comprehensive plans that cover all you medical needs, and specialized plans that only cover a particular illness or situation. Here's a breakdown of the most popular plans:
Comprehensive Plans
Comprehensive plans pay for your doctor visits, prescription drugs, hospital care, and related medical costs such as X-rays and lab tests. There are two types of comprehensive plans:
1. Fee-for-service plans (also called indemnity plans) - These are the traditional health care plans whereby you pay a monthly premium and your insurance company pays a percentage of your medical costs (usually 80%), after you pay a deductible. These plans allow you to choose your own health care providers and because of that they are the most expensive plans.
2. Managed health care plans (HMOs, PPOs, POSs) - With these plans you pay a monthly premium, or pay for services as rendered, and are assigned to a group of doctors, hospitals, and specialists. You pay a small co-payment for each doctor visit (usually $5 to $10), and your insurer pays your medical expenses. These are the cheapest of the comprehensive plans.
Specialized Plans
Specialized plans are for people who don't want to pay the high cost of a comprehensive plan, or who only want coverage for a particular illness or situation. These plans include:
* Major medical plans - These plans pay for hospital and surgical expenses for major illnesses such as cancer or a heart disease. You pay for doctor visits and prescription drugs and your insurer pays for major medical and hospital expenses. These plans have high deductibles and low monthly premiums.
*Specified disease plans - These plans only pay for medical expenses associated with a single disease such as cancer, heart attack, or AIDS.
* Accident only plans - These plans pay for medical expenses associated with an accident, and do not cover diseases or illnesses.
Where can I find an inexpensive plan?
Visit http://www.LowerRateQuotes.com/health-insurance.html or click on the following link to get individual health care plan quotes from top-rated companies and see how much you can save. You can get more tips and advice in their Articles section, and get answers to your questions from an insurance expert by using their online chat service.
The author, Brian Stevens, is a former insurance agent and financial consultant who has written a number of articles on individual health care plans.
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