Purchasing a Private Health Insurance Policy
<h1>Purchasing a private health insurance policy</h1>
Buying a private health care coverage can be scary for anyone who has always been covered by their employer’s group insurance plan. I’ve specialized in helping clients acquire affordable healthcare coverage for well over ten years now and have been a Connecticut insurance producer since 1985. I’d like to share with you the process I use when helping my clients find the best health insurance plan to cover themselves and their families.
The three areas we focus on are affordability, quality of coverage and the strength of the insurance carrier.
- Company- Your health insurance carrier should be stable financially and have a history of paying claims.
- Quality of coverage – The medical coverage must meet your needs. It should cover doctors, hospitals, labs plus drugs. It should also have physicians and hospitals in their networks that are convenient to your home and workplace.
- Price- Your healthcare plan must be priced competitively relative to the benefits provided.
The basic process we use is to:
- Determine which individual medical companies are worthy of being considered.
- Determine which insurance plans offered by those medical companies offer proper coverage
- Determine which choices have the lowest overall cost relative to the health insurance benefits provided
Health Insurance Companies
A personal healthcare provider should have good financial ratings and be in good standing with your state’s insurance department. You may also want to do a Yahoo! search for complaints.
For example type in “Mega Life and Health complaints” before submitting an application with the company. Each medical insurance carrier has some unhappy customers just by virtue of the volume of clients they have. That being said, a be warned when there are too many complaints.
One more thing to look at is how much they pay in benefits as a percentage of the premium they take in. A good company will write checks for about 80% of the money they take in to cover their policy holders’ medical claims.
Benefits – What does your plan cover?
There are two important parts of coverage. One is the treatments that are covered. The second is the network’s list of medical professionals that the insurance policy includes.
Covered Medical Procedures
You should read through your insurance plan’s outline of coverage or official brochure to see how doctors, hospitals and prescriptions are covered. A healthcare policy should cover you in both the doctor’s office and the hospital and should have a good lifetime maximum benefit. I suggest at least 5 million dollars of coverage.
Insurance Exclusions and Limitations in Health care Policies
Most if not all health care insurance plans will have a list of procedures and services that they won’t pay for. Most of the excluded or limited items in this section are reasonable and are included in the policies of most carriers as well. Insurance Plans typically are not designed to cover plastic surgery for example. However, there are often limitations that you will find in one carrier’s contract but not in others. Coverage for preexisting conditions is one example of this. Most policies will not cover the costs of a normal pregnancy. The ones that do will be more expensive when compared to otherwise similar plans that don’t cover pregnancy. The exclusions and limitations section of your policy or its out line of coverage should be read carefully before you make your decision about purchase.
Healthcare Insurance Provider Lists
Knowing which medical professionals are in your medical insurance plan’s network is crucial. You might be able to find a list of doctor’s who accept a given insurance plan by doing a Google search or by calling your health insurance broker.
Affordability – Finding the best low cost health policy
It is easy to compare personal health insurance costs, but its much harder to be certain you’re getting good value for your dollars.
Comparing Medical Insurance Policies
After you have ruled out the companies with poor coverage and/or networks, it is time to look at price as a factor.
The Best Healthcare Insurance Coverage for the Money
The best health insurance coverage, may not be the best plan for you. Often the best plan is overpriced and does not offer an extra dollar in medical benefits for each extra dollar it costs. Make sure that any plan you decide to own is:
- Provided by a good medical insurance company
- Will cover your medical needs well
- Is affordable
Alston Ballkcom
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