While it is taxing enough to solve your health care dilemma by sorting through tons of options, it’s even more frustrating to find a plan you could afford that turns out to be not so much in your best interest. In order to find a good plan, you really have to look at what is being offered. Here are six areas you need to pay close attention to so you know what to avoid:

Low Coverage Limits
Since health care costs are always on the rise, your policy covers should be adequate. In the event you have a serious medical problem, you can easily rack up hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical bills. If you policy limits are only $100,000, you’ll be responsible for footing the rest of that bill.

Limited Benefits
Steer clear of insurances that is listed as “not major” medical insurance or policies that proclaim “limited benefits”. Depending on where you live, these terms may be your only clue that the policy is a dud. Take a good look at what each policy your review says.

Coverage for Major Services
If the policy does not include or name specific services, you should consider that it is not covered. There are plenty of policies that do not include coverage for outpatient services, major treatments like chemotherapy, or prescription medications. Interestingly, some policies have sections labeled “What Is Not Covered” that still fail to mention specific services not covered under the insurance policy.

Inexpensive Premiums
While it would be great if we could all find great insurance coverage inexpensively but the reality is insurance will never be free. The only way to get the lowest premium is to have the minimum coverage. If you do a cost search for insurance coverage, you better make sure that policy covers what you need it to cover. You can’t seek out bargains when it comes to insurance. Look instead for coverage options and then find the plan that is most affordable.

Sky’s the Limit on Out-of-Pocket
If a policy does not specifically mention the maximum amount of cash out of pocket you have to pay before insurance kicks in 100%. Read the terms and beware of loopholes. There are policies that do not consider co-payment amounts towards the maximum so if you are not clear, your insurance can end up costing you too much and not cover enough

Limits on Care Categories
Check for specific types of care limits. For instance, does the policy have a $1200 a day cap on hospital stays? If so, you will have to pay the rest of the bill on your own. Considering hospital stays can cost thousands of dollars a day, you want to make sure the limits for special services are not too low considering the real-world cost of such services. Depending on the policy, there can be too-low limits on doctor visits, prescription medications, mental health treatments, diagnostic testing, outpatient care, rehabilitation and medical equipment.

Tags: health insurance, insurance coverage, insurance policy, medical issues

This entry was posted on Monday, July 27th, 2009 at 6:56 am and is filed under tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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