We all want to give our families the best we can afford, especially when it comes to health care. While family medical insurance plans can be confusing at first, a little study will help you understand the ways that different family medical insurance plans work and how to get the best family health insurance quote.
Most family medical insurance offered today comes in three basic plans: Health Maintenance Organization, Preferred Provider Organization, or Point of Service. Here's how they works.
Health Maintenance Organization- A health maintenance organization, or HMO, operates kind of like a community clinic. People who elect this option are choosing to get lower out-of-pocket medical costs by giving up the option of going to a specialist without a referral from their primary care physician.
In an HMO, participants are required to choose a primary care physician, who serves as the "gatekeeper" of all your medical care. You'll see this doctor most of the time for your health care. If you need a specialist for some injury or ailment, you will need to get a referral from your primary care physician to one of the specialists within the network.
An HMO's advantage is that it usually offers more preventative health care services than other plans. This means that an HMO could be the family medical insurance that works best for you, especially if you have young children who need vaccinations, dental and eye check-ups and so on. HMOs will usually give you a much lower family health insurance quote and often no deductible, which make them appealing for cash-strapped young families. The drawback to an HMO is that there's usually no coverage for any medical services outside the network except for emergencies. If your son or daughter breaks an arm while you are on vacation, you will have some coverage for an emergency room visit, but you will probably need to delay any extensive treatment until you get home to your network physician.
Preferred Provider Organization- This type of plan, known as a PPO, offers a network of doctors and hospitals with which the insurance company has agreements regarding the cost of medical services. The providers have contracted with the insurance company to offer a discounted family health insurance quote. Participants in a PPO pay a co-payment for each office visit and must fulfill a deductible before the insurance company starts paying for other medical services. Covered medical services are available from out-of-network doctors but it will cost you more out-of-pocket, because the insurance company probably will pay a smaller percentage of the cost of those medical services.
Point of Service- This kind of plan, referred to as POS, combines features of HMOs and PPOs. Participants must select a primary care physician from the insurer's network, but there's usually no deductible to fulfill for primary medical care. POS plans also typically offer coverage for a wider range of preventive care services than a preferred provider organization. However, like an HMO, a POS plan pays the greater percentage of medical care costs only for those physicians within the network. When getting a family health insurance quote for this plan you will find that there is a deductible required for out-of-network services, plus the insurer most likely will pay a much smaller percentage of out-of-network medical costs.
Armed with this information as well as a family health insurance quote, you should be able to choose the family medical insurance that works best for your family's needs.
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