Where to Find Inexpensive Individual Health Care Plans

There are all kinds of health care plans on the market today including comprehensive medical plans, managed health care plans, and a host of specialized plans. This article explains how to find an inexpensive plan that fits your needs.

What kinds of health care plans are available?

Health Care

Health care plans fall under two basic categories - comprehensive plans that cover all you medical needs, and specialized plans that only cover a particular illness or situation. Here's a breakdown of the most popular plans:

Comprehensive Plans

Comprehensive plans pay for your doctor visits, prescription drugs, hospital care, and related medical costs such as X-rays and lab tests. There are two types of comprehensive plans:

1. Fee-for-service plans (also called indemnity plans) - These are the traditional plans whereby you pay a monthly premium and your insurance company pays a percentage of your medical costs (usually 80%), after you pay a deductible. These plans allow you to choose your own health care providers and because of that they are the most expensive plans.

2. Managed health care plans (HMOs, PPOs, POSs) - With these plans you pay a monthly premium, or pay for services as rendered, and are assigned to a group of doctors, hospitals, and specialists. You pay a small co-payment for each doctor visit (usually to ), and your insurer pays your medical expenses. These are the cheapest of the comprehensive plans.

Specialized Plans

Specialized plans are for people who don't want to pay the high cost of a comprehensive plan, or who only want coverage for a particular illness or situation. These plans include:

* Major medical plans - These plans pay for hospital and surgical expenses for major illnesses such as cancer or a heart disease. You pay for doctor visits and prescription drugs and your insurer pays for major medical and hospital expenses. These plans have high deductibles and low monthly premiums.

*Specified disease plans - These plans only pay for medical expenses associated with a single disease such as cancer, heart attack, or AIDS.

* Accident only plans - These plans pay for medical expenses associated with an accident, and do not cover diseases or illnesses.

Where can I find an inexpensive plan?

Where to Find Inexpensive Individual Health Care Plans