10 Things You Must Know Before Deciding The Medical Insurance Plan
Having a medical insurance is one of the most intelligent steps you can take in your life.
There are many ways of making money in life and increasing the amount of money that one already has. However, not many people are able to use this money intelligently and for their best benefits. That’s where medical insurance comes in.
Medical insurance is a guaranty that the insured person will not have to pay the money for his medical expenses out of his pocket in a state of emergency or other illnesses that are covered under the insurance policy.
While is it important to have a medical insurance in place, it is even more important to choose the right medical insurance plan after proper pondering and brainstorming. Here are some of the most important points you must bring consideration before you buy a medical insurance plan.
10 Tips Before Buying Medical Insurance
1. Know your needs first and then start looking for an insurance plan. You must know why you need medical insurance and for whom i.e. only yourself or the entire family. Are you sure that particular illness you are getting the insurance for is covered under your insurance policy?
2. Know the many terms and terminologies related to insurance plans. There are many terms that you might have heard on ads and TV but many of the terms are only used when you start shopping for insurance plans. You can either ask for glossary of terms from the company you are dealing with to get the insurance done or get it from online websites. Many insurance websites have the glossary of terms on them for visitors’ assistance.
3. Are you sure the medication you are currently on is covered under the medical policy. However, on most occasions the company will have a plan through which you will have to either contribute or wholly pay the cost of your medication after a certain tier has been crossed.
4. Sometimes people stick to the insurance plan provided by their employers because they just don’t want to go through the hassle of comparison shopping and knowing the many difficult terms related to insurance policies. However, you should know that your employer is not always giving you the best type of insurance. If you are paying for the insurance plan provided by your employer, you might look at other individual. If your health is good you might be suffering higher deductions from your salary than what you would have paid as premiums if you had your own insurance plan.
5. The low costing plans are never considered the best plans in insurance world. This is because what you pay for your insurance is just one part of the many type of payments that you might have to pay in addition to your premiums for your insurance policy. Deductibles, co-payments etc. are some examples of expenses that you will mostly incur in addition to the premiums you are already paying for your insurance plan.
6. Mostly, you will be made to believe that plans with high deductibles are not good plans but that’s not true. Whether or not a plan with high deductibles is good for you is decided on the base of your overall health condition. If you are mostly healthy and don’t fall ill only occasionally, a plan with high deductible is going to save you a lot of money. Neither will you have to go to the doctor nor will you have to pay the amount of the deductible. Your monthly premiums will still be lower though.
7. The network of hospitals and doctors is another important factor that you must consider when choosing a medical insurance plan. You want to make sure that some of the best and most reliable doctors and hospitals are included in the network of the company providing you the medical insurance. At the least, you should have the hospitals and doctors that you have always trusted included in your network. A small network of hospitals and doctors can be a problem for some families.
8. If you are being offered the FSA (flexible spending account) you would be making the biggest mistake of your life by not accepting it. This deduction of the money from your salary is done before the deduction of the tax. What this means is that you get to save some money to pay for the medical expenses but the deduction of the amount results in a greatly reduced deduction of income tax from your salary.
9. Did you know there’s something called SBC that could be extremely helpful for you for deciding which policy you should go for? SBC stands for “summary of benefits and coverage” in the simplest terms possible. This makes the documents easily understandable for any person interested in an insurance policy. Ask for it from your to-be insurer to make sure you take the right decision.
10. Among many other things, don’t forget the international medical insurance if you are a traveler or are thinking of going to a foreign county and living there for some time. This type of insurance will provide you the peace of mind that you will not have to pay high medical costs if you fall ill in another country. Furthermore, you will not have to take the pain of currency exchange losses when you are already covered under international medical insurance.
There are many other things that you must look at before picking a medical insurance policy. You can always get help from the online resources. Insurance websites are great sources of getting information about insurance terms and policies too but use them only for general information. Most specific information will be in favor of the company whose website you are looking at. Always compare the companies, their reputation and insurance policies by visiting only reviewing websites and knowing the comments and feedbacks given by the customers of insurance companies and the experts reviewing these companies and their policies. Be sure of your decision and don’t be hasty.
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