Which Health Insurance Plan is Right For You?
If you get health insurance coverage through your job, your employer picks your insurance and you may or may not have very many choices. If you buy your own, you're in charge, but your choices are limited by the plans available to individual purchasers, as well as by how much you can afford to spend.
Unfortunately, there's no such thing as standard coverage. Details vary enormously from one health insurance plan to another. The best value is not necessarily the plan with the cheapest premium or the one with the most benefits. It's the plan that covers the health services you want and need for the lowest out-of-pocket expense. In essence, differences among plans come down to three intertwined elements: benefits, costs, and restrictions.
Every health insurance plan will cover you for doctor and hospital bills, with various limits. Virtually everything else, including prescription drugs, glasses, psychotherapy and preventive care, such as immunizations and screenings, may or may not be covered, depending on the specific health insurance plan.
To figure out how well a health insurance plan suits your needs, first make a list of the health services you and your family normally use. For each plan, note the amount of coverage for each of those services - for instance, "100%," "80%," "not covered." Once you've got a handle on how fully each plan covers your health needs, you can evaluate cost differences.