Health Insurance: How To Compare Different Types of Plans

Medical insurance is a must-have – you may require hospital admission at any time, and unless you have medical insurance, you’ll need to pay thousands of dollars in bills. This could effectively wipe out your life’s savings. To keep this from happening, it’s important that you do your research and buy a policy that offers adequate coverage. But, given the different types of policies out there, picking the right one is not easy. That’s why we’ve put together this comparison guide to help you understand the pros and cons of different plans.

Before you start, it’s important to mention that if you are currently employed with an organization that offers health insurance, make sure to speak to a Human Resources specialist. They will be able to take you through the different plans available and pick a suitable one.

Here are the main types of health insurance plans available:

Preferred Provider Organization

These plans contract with doctors and hospitals to create a network of providers. If you visit a doctor outside this network, you’ll need to pay more. The benefit of these plans is that the networks are quite extensive, but you should verify which providers are part of the network before you sign up for a plan. The downside is that these plans can get expensive.

High Deductible Health Plan

These health plans, like the name suggests, have a higher deductible, and a lower premium, which is the biggest benefit of these plans. The downside is that your out-of-pocket expenses will be pretty high, which means this is a good plan for people who are in good health and hardly ever visit the hospital.

Health Maintenance Organization

This type of health insurance plan only provides coverage if you visit a doctor who has a contract for that specific plan. This means unless you have a medical emergency, the plan will not pay for out-of-network care. The benefit of these plans is that they are quite affordable, but there is not much flexibility. You can only visit doctors if they are in the network, otherwise, you will have to pay out-of-pocket.