Major medical health insurance is designed to protect your finances in case of a catastrophic medical expense. This could be an extended hospitalization, an illness that requires regular and expensive medication, or any other number of things that can quickly exhaust your annual benefits on your regular health insurance plan. As everyone knows, medical expenses aren’t cheap, and if you’re hit with a large one, it can quickly overwhelm your existing insurance account and start draining your personal savings. Many people have gone bankrupt from these kinds of situations, and a major medical plan can protect you.

Lots of people are unaware that their health insurance plans have limits. Most plans have a cap on how much money they’ll pay toward your medical expenses each year, as well as over the course of a lifetime. These caps are usually quite high, such as in the millions of dollars that are usual for lifetime caps. However, serious medical situations can exhaust even these seemingly unreachable limits. It may only take a month or two in the hospital as an inpatient, for example, to reach the one million dollar mark. After that, your health insurance may stop paying.

Major medical health insurance picks up where your regular insurance plan leaves off. It’s an extra insurance to protect against the limits of insurance. Most people aren’t even aware these plans exist. However, you’ll be happy you have one if you’re ever involved in a catastrophic medical situation. While you may not envision something like this happening to you, the fact is, you never know. It’s better to be prepared than to wish you’d been prepared when it’s too late to do something about it.

The time to purchase a major medical health insurance plan is now. You won’t be able to get one once you’re in need of it. No insurance plan will cover someone who’s already in the hospital, for example. Taking the time to compare prices and options on these plans now is a smart move toward your financial future. Give yourself and your family that extra bit of protection we all need and invest in a major medical plan today.

This is the fourth installment in our health insurance series. Be sure to check back for updates…

HSA health insurance stands for Health Savings Account, and it’s something you should consider if you have a high deductible plan. In an HSA, you contribute funds to the plan at the beginning of the year all at once, or throughout the year in payroll deductions. The funds you contribute aren’t taxable and can roll over to the next year if you don’t use them all before year’s end. You can use the funds in the plan to pay for medical expenses not covered by your insurance, such as co-pays and prescriptions.

Unlike flexible spending accounts, where your employer owns the account and its associated funds, YOU own your HSA health insurance account. You can use your funds without any federal tax liability at all, whenever you like. This type of account is essentially a way to save for upcoming medical expenses before they occur.

Another good point about HSA plans is that you can use them as you see fit, without the approval of a primary care physician or any other type of administrator. As of right now, you can contribute a maximum of $2,900 per individual per year to an HSA account, and a maximum of $5,800 per family per year. If you leave your health insurance plan that the HSA supports, you won’t be able to make further contributions to your account. However, the funds that are already there will remain available for your use.

You can access your HSA funds in one of several ways. The most popular way is through the use of a debit card that is loaded with your funds by your employer. You can then use the debit card just as you would a credit card; in fact, most debit cards for these accounts carry the MasterCard and Visa logos, so you can use them wherever those kinds of cards are accepted. Other employers may provide you with checks you can write on the account, while other employers may ask that you pay eligible medical expenses up front, and then apply for reimbursement through the account. However you access your funds, an HSA account is a wonderful choice for anyone who wants to be sure the money to pay medical expenses is there when they need it.

This is the third installment in our health insurance series. Be sure to check back for updates…

In part one of this health insurance comparison article, we discussed HMOs, PPOs, and POS policies. However, the spectrum of health insurance policies doesn’t end there. If you qualify for them, Medicare and Medicaid are both good quality insurance programs run by the federal government that you might want to consider.

*Medicare-Medicare was signed into action by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965. It’s a government-sponsored, single payer program that’s available to Americans age 65 and older, as well as disabled Americans who are younger than 65 and also drawing Social Security disability payments. You pay into the system through payroll deductions for as long as you’re working (these deductions are mandatory). Once you hit 65 years of age, you are automatically signed up for the program. If you are disabled, you can draw Medicare as soon as you’ve been getting disability payments for a year.

Medicare has 3 main parts-Part A, Part B, and Part D.  Part A covers hospitalization, and is automatically given to everyone who gets Medicare. Part B covers doctor visits and lab tests, and requires a small monthly premium to be taken out of your Social Security check to get.  Part B is voluntary, so you have to opt into it. Part D covers prescriptions, is also voluntary, and also requires a small monthly premium payment.

*Medicaid-Medicaid is a joint program that’s handled by both the federal government and the states. Each state handles its own Medicaid program, and is given funds toward its operation by the federal government. Medicaid is for low-income people of any age, including children, and you qualify for it entirely based on income. You’re free to go to any doctor who accepts Medicaid, though finding one may be difficult. In many cases, Medicaid recipients end up going to state and county-run clinics for treatment. However, there are no premiums to pay with Medicaid, which makes it a popular option for elderly people, who often sell all their assets so they qualify for Medicaid for nursing home purposes.

We hope this health insurance comparison helped you decide which policy is right for you, and also helped you understand the differences in each type of coverage. Health insurance can often be a confusing thing, and it’s a complicated road to navigate. Once you’ve got the right coverage, though, it will make a huge difference in your family’s lives. If you don’t have coverage now, get it soon, because you never know when you’re going to need it.

This is the second installment in our health insurance series. Be sure to check back for updates…

A health insurance comparison will help you know what the best policy is for you to buy. Health insurance is a hot topic on everyone’s minds nowadays. If you don’t have it, you want it, because medical expenses are so high. If you DO have it, you want to be sure you’re getting the best deal. Employers are raising insurance premiums for employees each day, making health coverage out of reach for many people who are employed full-time. If you have to self-insure, it gets even MORE expensive. So how can you be sure you’re getting the most bang for your insurance buck?  

The following health insurance comparison should help you make an informed decision in covering your family’s medical expense needs. Here are the top 5 types of health insurance, and what each one can do for you:

HMOs-HMO stands for Health Maintenance Organization. HMOs are one of the most common employer-provided insurance policies. In an HMO, all of your medical care is coordinated by your primary care physician. If you need to see a specialist, your primary physician must write you a referral, or the HMO won’t pay for it. This greatly restricts your freedom in getting appropriate medical care, since each new specialist you see requires a trip to the primary care doctor first. However, the lack of flexibility is made up for in the ultra-low premiums this type of policy generally offers.

 PPOs-PPO stands for Preferred Provider Organization. This is the second most popular type of insurance policy. In a PPO, you don’t need a referral from a primary care physician to see a specialist. In fact, you’re free to see any doctor you want at any time. However, PPOs maintain a network of their “preferred physicians,” and you pay a significantly smaller co-pay if you use a physician that’s in the network. You’ll still receive benefits for out of network doctors, but your co-pay for these visits will be higher than if you’d stayed in the network.

 POSs-This is also known as a point of service plan. In the POS plan, you visit a primary care physician that has previously agreed to give you a discounted fee through the insurance. You can get significantly reduced office visit prices this way, and this makes the POS policy a good money saver. However, it also has limited flexibility, in that you must get your primary care physician to give you referrals to other in-network specialists in order to obtain insurance benefits for those visits.

 In part two of this article, we’ll continue our health insurance comparison by comparing Medicare and Medicaid. These two government-sponsored health insurance programs are attracting an increasing number of users each year. You want to be sure you know the qualifications for these policies, as well as the benefits they offer, so stay tuned!

This is the first installment in our health insurance series. Be sure to check back for updates…