Looking for an inexpensive family health insurance plan to fit your family’s needs?
Depending on the types of services you may need. Take a quick look at the most common insurance plans:
Fee-For-Service Plan (FFS-Indemnity Plan) - This plan, is best if you want a plan that pays for your doctor visits, hospital bills, prescription drugs, and will let you use choose your own doctor. on the Indemnity plan there’s a deductible and monthly premium (usually $500 to $1,500) this is an out-of-pocket expense before the acual coverage begins. The insurance plan will pay 80% of the total bill, while you pay the remaining 20%.
*Plan Advantages - You have total freedom in choosing the doctors or hospitals. If you have known medical needs which require specialists, this is the way to go.
* Plan Disadvantages - In order for insurance coverage to start, you must meet the deductible first. By far, the most expensive plan.
Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) - This is the most affordable family health insurance plan. With a minimal co-payment (usually $5 - $10) Your doctor visits, hospital bills and even prescriptions are covered. The hospitals and doctors are part of a service group which provides care for that particular HMO and resources outside of that group are not covered. There’s a monthly fee associated with this plan.
* Plan Advantages - Most affordable insurance plan, there are no out-of-pocket deductibles, your bills are covered by the HMO, and usually entails less paperwork is minimal.
* Plan Disadvantages - You are restricted to use only doctors, hospitals, and services of providers that participate in that HMO plan, and in order to see a specialist, it must be by the request of the HMO participating primary doctor.
Preferred Provider Organization (PPO) - This insurance plan is more affordable than the indemnity plan, whie giving your family more options in selection of service providers. The terms “in-network” and “out-of-network” refer to whether the service provider participates in that particular plan. Usually an in-network provider is covers 80% while out-ofnetwork is 70%. With PPO plans, you pay for your medical services as they are rendered rather than paying beforehand.
* Plan Advantages - Premiums are more affordable versus the indemnity plan, you can see any doctor you choose, and when you see a in-network doctor you’ll save money.
* Plan Disadvantages - Monthly premiums are more expensive than HMO premiums, and you usually have to pay a deductible before your insurer will pay your claims.
So how do I get the best affordable family health insurance rate?
After you figure out which plan best suits your family’s needs, you can begin to do a little comparison shopping to get the most affordable rate. Monthly insurance premiums can vary by hundreds of dollars from one insurance plan to the next, so I recommend starting by collecting and plotting quotes from insurance companies. Most offer free quotes directly from the carrier and there are also services which will take your information and submit them to insurance companies for you. This saves a lot of time, but you still need to plot out the benefits and costs in order to select the most affordable family health insurance plan.
