What is HMO medical health insurance?
Reader question:
What is HMO medical health insurance?
Miriam
I’ll tell you.
The main benefit of getting an HMO, or health maintenance organization medical health insurance plan, is that this most popular of employer provided health insurance plans also tends to be the cheapest medical health insurance plan. It’s more designed for group health insurance, which is why it finds such popularity among companies insuring their employees. HMO medical health insurance is also one of the few health insurance plans that puts a lot of emphasis on preventive care.
The reason they put so much emphasis on preventive care is because, the way HMO sees it, is that preventive care can help reduce risks in an insurance pool by decreasing the likelihood that its members will develop a medical conditions, and thus it reduces medical costs. That is why it is the best to help someone stay healthy, not just to help them out if something goes terribly wrong.
The Good:
- The main thing is preventive care, which lowers both their costs and yours. HMOs also require less paperwork, and when you make a co-payment on something it will cost far less than it would with another medical health insurance plan.
- The insured under a health maintenance organization just pay a little fee each time they go to the doctor, and that is considered their co-payment.
- The coverage goes wide, with such things as outpatient services, extended medical treatment, short term mental health treatment, hospital stays, and emergency room visits.
The Bad:
- Picking and choosing the physician that you go to isn’t as easy as with traditional indemnity. Instead, you are only able to pick one provider, and that is who you must go to once he is listed on your insurance.
- The doctor you must pick has to be within the HMOs network. If you go to a hospital or physician outside of the network, then you won’t be covered at all.
- If you want to go outside of the network to see a specialist and still be covered, then you have to have a referral from your primary care provider.
Cheers,
Fashun Guadarrama.
How much does temporary health insurance cost?
Reader question:
How much does temporary health insurance cost?
Jack
Great question.
The main reason that a lot of people choose to take out a short term health insurance policy is because it is so cheap. The reason it so cheap is because, well, it is short term and its coverage is limited. It does not cover things like pre-existing conditions and preventive care, so they tend to take on people who do not need those things and that lowers the premium payments for everyone. Most people, then, who have temporary health insurance are healthy and loyal as they only have to have the policy for twelve months. That’s a pretty risk free insured group, and without risk and with very few health insurance claims, costs are less.
If you are married and have two kids and live in Chicago, for example, let’s look at your case. You could be paying as little as three hundred dollars every month for the whole family to get one million dollars of temporary health insurance coverage with a one thousand dollar deductible. If you don’t make any claims, you’ll probably be able to renew your plan for three years until you find a long term health insurance coverage.
If you’re just a single guy and want the same thing, you’re looking at a mere seventy bucks a month.
Where the cost really comes in, though, is when you need to file a health insurance claim on your short term health insurance plan. If you have a one thousand dollar deductible, then your 100% coverage probably won’t kick in until five thousand dollars, and before that you will be co-paying.
A lot of companies that offer short term health insurance plans give you the option to pay either all at once or by month. If you pay all at once, you can get a discount.
Cheers,
Fashun Guadarrama.
What is catastrophic health insurance?
Reader question:
What is catastrophic health insurance, and who is it good for?
Grant
I’m glad you asked that.
Many people find themselves unable to afford health insurance because of the high monthly premiums, and for this reason feel hesitant to go to the hospital even in an emergency case. There are forty five million people in the United States who do not have any kind of medical health insurance. And it is absolutely necessary to have full medical health insurance so that you can get regular check ups, prescriptions, and preventive care, but we have to face the truth that some people just can’t.
So what does a person in this situation do? Well, they don’t absolutely have to get a full medical health insurance plan. If a person finds that they work for a company with no health insurance plans, is not able to afford health insurance coverage, or just doesn’t want to pony up the money for it, there is still the option for catastrophic health insurance. This is also sometimes called a major medical plan, a type of health insurance plan with a more specific focus than most.
What catastrophic health insurance is, is a type of medical health insurance plan that requires higher deductibles but at the same time, the monthly payments are a lot smaller. The catch is that it covers a whole lot less than your average medical health insurance plan. You end up paying yourself for your check ups and drugs, while the catastrophic health insurance plan will only cover major hospital visits.
Catastrophic health insurance will provide coverage for most hospital stuff, from the cost of your stay to X Rays and lab tests. If you feel that you are able to afford routine visits, but need something to fall back on for the more expensive medical situations, catastrophic health insurance is for you. It is also a good option for people who would otherwise not be able to afford any kind of health insurance.
Cheers,
Fashun Guadarrama.
Health insurance in Houston hard to get for Texas workers
There are more uninsured people in Texas than in any other state, especially in the bigger cities like Houston. Getting health insurance in Houston and the rest of Texas is apparently a problem for 25% of the population, and the problem is growing. All of the large cities in Texas have more uninsured than the percentage for the whole country, which has an average of 15.3%. Workers and their families are now seeing that it is difficult to get cheap, affordable health insurance in Houston.
More than half of employers who have less than ten employees don’t provide them with health insurance in Houston. This is mostly because it just costs too much. If you have a very short payroll, it’s hard to spend thirty percent of that payroll money on health insurance. But the Task Force for Access to Health Care in Texas says in its report “Code Red: The Critical Condition of Health in Texas” that the people who don’t have health insurance in Houston and in all of Texas have a lower quality of life.
These people without health insurance are getting health care, to some degree, and a third of it is paid for by them from their own funds. The rest of it is not, and it shows when it comes to higher health insurance premiums for everybody else. The harder it is without health insurance in Houston, the harder it is to get it.
One of the most important benefits of having health insurance in Houston is the preventive care that comes along with it. The need for future medical care can be avoided by getting cared for now through your insurance plan, thus avoiding complicated problems. The uninsured don’t have that privilege, and for this reason they can come up against heavy medical costs for avoidable conditions.
Problems with health insurance are growing, and it’s a big issue both for individuals and for small companies who find that it’s hard to keep up with both the cost of wages and health insurance and still turn a profit. Try to avoid these problems by looking for your own health insurance at a cheap price. To get this you need to shop around and see who has the best to offer for the least, so you don’t get caught in the problem. Put in your zip code at the top of the page to get a free health insurance quote for Houston.
Cheers,
Fashun Guadarrama.