general agency company > life & employee benefits > coverages > health insurance
Health Insurance
Helps pay for the ever-increasing costs of medical care. Choosing the type of health insurance coverage that's right for you requires careful consideration of the tradeoffs between flexibility and affordability.
There are plans available that cover larger cost procedures such as hospitalization, surgery, and emergency care. These are typically referred to as Major Medical plans. Then there are comprehensive programs available that cover office visits, prescriptions, lab and x-ray in addition to the basic procedures list above. These are typically referred to as Comprehensive Major Medical plans.
There are typically four different levels of network accessibility in health insurance programs. They are:
- Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs) , which are generally the most affordable option but usually require members to obtain care only from within a given plan's network of providers. These are the most restrictive policies and typically don’t work in rural areas.
- Point of Service, which operates like HMOs but members can pay extra to see out-of-network providers.
- Preferred Provider Organizations (PPOs) , which function like indemnity plans but provide more favorable reimbursement rates when care is sought in-network.
- Indemnity plans , which allow for virtually unlimited choice of providers but are often the priciest option. These plans give you the most flexibility.
For more information about health insurance, see the Life and Health Insurance Foundation for Education (LIFE) .