Health Articles

What to Look for in Good Health Insurance

Health insurance is a kind of protection that provides payment of benefits for covered sickness or injury. Included in health insurance are various types of insurance such as accident insurance, disability income insurance, medical expense insurance, and accidental death and dismemberment insurance.

Before sign the health insurance policy make sure that you have read thoroughly the benefits section. Take note of any health care service that is not covered by your health insurance policy. Also, pay specific attention to how the health insurance policy is worded. Sometimes, health insurance companies hide the health insurance coverage exclusions within the definitions of words.

For instance, a health insurance company may define the term emergency as anything that is life threatening condition that cannot be reasonably treated by a primary care physician. Whereas, your definition of emergency may be anything that requires quick medical attention.

Clearly, there is conflict for the two definitions. If you find yourself in an emergency situation where you incur a broker arm, for instance, your insurance company may deny coverage for emergency room treatment of a broken arm for the reason that the broken arm does not fall under the life threatening category.

Therefore, you should read over carefully the health insurance policy definitions, paying close attention to the seven key words:

medical emergency medically necessary accidental injury experimental or investigational pre certification pre-existing condition, and reasonable and customary

These words and any words that are open to interpretation should be regarded with wariness. Find out how your health insurance company defines each of these.

Finally, find the section describing the procedures you must follow in order for your insurance company to reimburse you. These policy conditions or prerequisites are typically worded in a positive tone. Read through each condition carefully, make notes and call your health insurance company with any questions.

You should also compare health insurance contracts before you sign one. In order to compare exclusions, take two policy contracts and find the exclusions sections. If you want to compare a number of health insurance contracts then you could use an online service.

After you obtain your free quote for the health coverage you desire, apply for it online, and you'll obtain all the information that you'll need to compare exclusions of each health insurance policy (though sometimes this will require more research.)

Copyright 2005 Mike Spencer

Mike Spencer recently became unemployed and moved into self employment. He was forced to find his own health insurance plan to protect his family. It wasn't as easy as he first thought. Here he shares the pitfalls of various plans and what you need to look out for when picking a good plan for you: http://www.1st-for-health-insurance.com/articles/what-is-health-insurance.html

Related Links:

Living Abroad - Spanish National Health System

What Price For Your Health?

Senior Health Care Insurance

Is Pet Health Insurance an Option?

Latest Health News

BBC News | Health | World Edition
Visit BBC News for up-to-the-minute news, breaking news, video, audio and feature stories. BBC News provides trusted World and UK news as well as local and regional perspectives. Also entertainment, business, science, technology and health news.

• 
  Antioxidants 'cannot slow ageing'
  30 Nov 2008 at 7:17pm
  Diets and creams which claim their antioxidant properties could cheat the advances of time may be worthless, researchers suggest.
  
• 
  Web searches feed health fears
  1 Dec 2008 at 6:03am
  Health information online is breeding a generation of cyberchondriacs, say researchers.
  
• 
  S Africa unveils new Aids fight
  1 Dec 2008 at 10:12am
  South Africa's new heath minister pledges to increase the availability of treatment for HIV and Aids.
  
• 
  Group therapy 'beats depression'
  1 Dec 2008 at 2:54am
  Group-taught meditation is as effective as medication for stopping people slipping back into depression, say scientists.
  
• 
  Drink-fuelled attacks alarm A&E
  1 Dec 2008 at 8:47am
  Reseachers at a hospital casualty unit say the proportion of facial injuries related to alcohol has doubled in 10 years.
  
• 
  Heart disease 'reversed in mice'
  30 Nov 2008 at 4:04pm
  Scientists have halted the advance of heart disease in mice - and even reversed some of its effects.