Individual Medical Insurance - How to Get the Best Rate

In the market for individual medical insurance? Here's how to get the best rate with an A-rated company.


Individual Medical Insurance

There are two types of medical insurance - indemnity plans, and managed health care plans such as HMOs (health maintenance organizations), PPOs (preferred provider organizations), and PPOs (point of service plans).

Indemnity plans let you choose your own physicians and hospitals, and they pay all or part of your medical costs. They're the most expensive plans, involve the most amount of paperwork, but offer the most flexibility.

Managed health care plans set you up with a network of physicians and hospitals, and assign you a primary care physician who oversees your medical care. They're the least expensive plans, involve the least amount of paperwork, but you cannot choose your doctors or hospitals.


What's Covered?

A good individual medical insurance plan should include the following:

* Physician coverage - pays for your doctor's visits.

* Prescription drug coverage - pays for your prescription drugs.

* Hospital coverage - pays for your room and medical services.

* Surgical coverage - pays for your surgeon's fees and surgical costs.

In addition to your premium, you may have out-of-pocket costs such as:

* A deductible - the amount you pay before your insurance company pays a claim.

* A co-payment - the portion of the physician's fee you pay before the company pays.

* Coinsurance payment - the percentage of medical expenses you pay after your deductibles are met.


Which Plan is Best?

The best individual health insurance plan is the one that gives you the most coverage for the least amount of money. Before you purchase a plan you should ask the following questions:

1. Does the plan cover the medical services you need?

2. Are there pre-existing conditions that may make you ineligible or make you wait to get coverage?

3. What are the co-payments, deductibles, and coinsurances?

4. Is the insurance company reliable and will it give you good service?


How to Get Cheap Individual Medical Insurance

The best way to get cheap individual medical insurance is to compare rates from different insurers. There are insurance comparison websites you can visit that will give you quotes from different A-rated companies. The best comparison sites feature online chat services so you can get answers to all your health insurance questions from insurance professionals (See link below.)

Visit http://www.LowerRateQuotes.com/health-insurance.html or click on the following link to get individual medical insurance quotes from top-rated companies and see how much you can save. You can get more insurance tips in their Articles section.


The author, Brian Stevens, is a former insurance agent and financial consultant who has written extensively on individual medical insurance.

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