What Are The Different Types of Health Insurance?

The United States provides a variety of health insurance options. It gives people the chance to choose which insurance plan fits their need.

Catastrophic health insurance

Catastrophic health insurance is considered as the one of the least expensive insurance plan available. It only covers protection against catastrophe or calamity. You pay for a low monthly premium. Also, with this type of insurance, you only pay for something that you need and not what you might need in the future. With this kind of plan, you automatically save money when you are healthy. But if something bad happens to you or your family, you are covered.

Short Term Health Insurance

Short term health insurance can only be attained for a specific period of time or event. There are two common types of short term health insurance. One plan covers death regardless its cause while the other one is accidental death policies. The accidental death policy is much cheaper than the first one. Also, young adults prefer the accidental death policy over the other one because they believe that death due to sickness or natural causes is negligent on their part already. The good part about short term health insurance is that when you need it for a longer period of time, you can always extend it or renew it for the same price for a long period of time.

Preferred Provider Organization (PPOs)

It is a health insurance where you will join a network so that your medical bills will be fully covered if the doctors or the hospitals belong to the same PPO as you are. If you decided to consult to a doctor or specialist outside your network, then you are expected to pay for the whole bill. Unlike in PPO, you can pay in half or deductibles. And sometimes, you can get your medical bills at a discounted price.

Point of Service (POS)

Point of service is an insurance plan that is very similar to preferred provider organizations. The only different is that, in Point of service, you get to choose your doctor among the list of physicians provided by the system’s network of doctors. Also, with this kind of insurance plan, you can look for a specialist outside your network and still get some benefits from your network. Point of Service also offers preventive care services like smoking cessations, workshops on nutrition and even discounts at health club.

Health Maintenance Organizations

Health maintenance organizations are health insurance plan is also one of the least expensive plans available. The only downside of this is that it is not very flexible. It is also designed for groups than for individuals. It has a low premium and less paperwork but they only requires you to see their doctors and no one else. If you need to go to a specialist then you must get a referral from one of your primary care physician. Also, to go to the emergency room, you must ask for a clearance first. Health maintenance organization plan is only best known in preventive care and health enhancement programs.