Low Cost Medical Insurance

In most of the developed economies in the world, the majority of the employed individuals are covered by a group health insurance by the employer or a spouse's employer. Here the employer sponsors the premium fully or partially. Being sponsored by the employer, this group insurance makes for the most low cost health insurance option.

But there are many employers running small business, who cannot afford to offer their employees health insurance coverage. The employees of such small organizations might obtain health insurance coverage through the membership of labor union or other professional associations. These organizations also provide low cost medical insurance to its members.

Another low cost health insurance option is "COBRA" (Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985), which allows you to get afford health insurance coverage for at least 18 months. The policies under COBRA are meant to cover those who were included in their spouse's group plan, but now either widowed or divorced. COBRA is also applicable for the school children and the laid off employees.

In search of a suitable health insurance you often end up with a whole lot of confusing terms like Indemnity plans, HMOs plan and many more. While none of them takes care of your complete medical expenses, each of them has their respective benefits. While looking for a low cost health insurance option, you should be prepared to compromise on the grounds of variety of services covered. Here is an outline on three main types of health insurance policies.

Indemnity Plans
It is a traditional style of health insurance policy that gives you the liberty of visiting any doctor of your choice. These insurances are also described by the terms, fee-for-service or point of service plans.

These plans provide you the maximum flexibility, but charge the maximum amount of premium. The advantages you get from this medical insurance are however worth paying the high premium. It enables you to get treatment anywhere without any prior recommendations.

This plan which is as a rule much costlier than other health policies require you to pay the hospital instantly with a later reimbursement from the insurance company.

Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs)
Under HMO plan you are entitled to obtain health care services from an HMO or Health Maintenance Organization. This organizations offer medical facilities as a package for a fixed price. These organizations consist of levels of medical practitioners, including the general practitioners and the specialists. Under this plan, each patient must go through the supervision of a general physician, who is described as a gatekeeper. Without the gatekeeper’s confirmation, you can not be treated by a specialist. Thus under this plan you have the risk of not getting adequate medical care that you truly need.

One advantage of HMOs is that it always keeps your up front costs low and always within a known limit. You also do not have to produce claim forms in these plans.

However, a big disadvantage of this plan is your medical expenses incurred outside your HMO network will not be covered by this plan. Also some areas of healthcare are not covered by this plan.

Preferred Provider Organizations (PPOs)
A PPO or Preferred Provider Organization has the same features of an HMO with regard to the managed health care packages. But PPO is a plan with greater flexibility that allows the patient to obtain the services of professional outside the network in the times of necessities. However the extra cost for seeking services outside the network must be fulfilled by your own pocket.

Thus PPOs are more advantageous than HMOs in that here you get more choices and flexibilities. Then the demerit of this plan is you have to often cough up extra money beyond your calculation.

The employers often offer to choose between HMO and PPO. If given opportunity, the PPO is the more preferable option for majority.

Travel health insurance
It is one type of low cost health insurance. This insurance offers health insurance coverage for medical expenses while traveling abroad. This however does not include the travels specifically taken up for treatments abroad. The older people and those with chronic medical problems are charged higher premium, as they are the persons more likely to place claims.

On the basis of above tips you will be able to pick up a low cost health insurance plan that meets your medical requirements as well as your financial situations.

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