Health Insurance Types

Shopping for health insurance properly means that you must know about the different types of insurance available to you. The private industry has come up with many different options for its customers that allow them to tailor their insurance needs to suit any individual or family situation. Different budget requirements are also considered when it comes to choosing which type of medical insurance is best for you, and there are plans that might range from just $50 per month or less to plans that could cost a great deal depending on a variety of factors, (see our insurance price modifiers page).

HMO, PPO and HSA Plans

The three major types of insurance plans in use today are the PPO, HMO, and HSA, all of which are geared toward specific needs, budgets and lifestyle choices. The right health insurance plan for you - if it is among these three plans - will require further knowledge and understanding of the options and sub-types within each of these plans.

• PPO Plans: The original PPO (Preferred Provider Organization) plans were the beginning of health insurance in this country. They allowed the insured individual(s) to completely direct their own healthcare and choose their own doctors, specialists, and decide whom they would see and when as long as it was within a specific network of doctors. Various PPO plans across the country are different sizes and have different levels of restriction (or none at all) for how much room you have to self-direct your own care.
• HMO Plans: The HMO plan was originally designed and sold as a way to help control healthcare costs. An HMO (Health Maintenance Organization), is a way of controlling costs by imposing a narrower focus on healthcare, allowing the use of specialists and other medical decisions to be determined between the patient and the doctor and not just the patient alone. While this was meant to revolutionize the healthcare industry and provide savings to both insurance companies and consumers, the end result has not quite met that goal. HMOs across the country tend to compete at price point for coverage with PPO plans.
• HSA Plans: A Health Savings Account or HSA plan is the most recent of the big three plans to develop and it is fast growing in popularity among Americans as the best way to have ultimate control over ones healthcare. An HSA works like a PPO in that you have almost complete freedom to choose and direct your own healthcare and needs, but it doesn't have monthly premiums like a PPO. Instead, money that you deposit into the account tax free is used to pay for your healthcare at a discounted rate in a network as you see fit. You will use this money to pay for your own prescriptions, your doctor's visits, and even your over the counter medications if you wish. Various levels of HSA plans provide different discounts and deductibles that must be met before more money will be kicked in to help pay for your expenses.