Individual health insurance plans and family health insurance plans, while basically the same, differ in degree of coverage as well as cost. Learn the difference between the two types of insurance products.

Individual Health Insurance Plans and Family Health Insurance Plans – Do You Know the Difference?

Trying to locate the right health insurance plan to fit your budget isn’t always the easiest thing to do especially with the growing cost of health care here in the United States.  Determining what you want a health insurance plan to accomplish for you and your family and determining the needs to be covered will help you decide what health insurance plan may work best you and your family.

What are Individual Health Insurance Plans?

The first place to start our discussion is with the individual health insurance plan.  An individual health insurance plan is basically what it says it is.  An individual health insurance plan is a health insurance plan for one person.  If you find you have no one else to insure with a health insurance policy then this will be your best option from a cost standpoint.  Keep in mind however that individual health insurance plans may vary widely in affordability depending on the type of coverage you choose for yourself.

The more traditional individual health care plan is called an indemnity plan.  The indemnity plan normally covers your visits to the doctor of your choosing and will cover the procedures that this doctor may prescribe for you.  The cost for this indemnity plan will vary depending upon a deductible you choose for herself as well as your out-of-pocket limit.  Keep in mind though that overall this type of health insurance plan is the more expensive of the individual health insurance plans but does offer you the most freedom of choice.

Individual managed care plans such as HMOs are less expensive than the indemnity plans but you need to be aware that you do give up some of the freedoms that are offered by the indemnity plan.  Your freedom to choose your doctor is limited to the doctors on the HMO’s approved list and any specialists that you may need to see will have to be referred by this primary doctor.  If primary yearly checkups and the occasional antibiotics describes your current health care needs, this plan may be the one for you.  This plan will cover health emergencies but there may be just a few more hoops you have to jump through than with the Indemnity health care plan. Both of these health insurance plans, the indemnity plan as well as the individual managed care plan, may include dental coverage and prescription coverage at an additional cost.

What Are Family Health Insurance Plans?

As the name implies, family health insurance plans are designed for families.  However since these family health insurance plans are covering more than one person, the cost of these plans will be higher.  As you may already have guessed, the larger the family the larger the price tag.  In addition, factors such as the ages, gender, and habits such as smoking or tobacco use in general etc. will largely determine how much this policy will cost you.  As with individual health insurance plans, there are indemnity plans that are available for families.  And since these indemnity plans offer the same freedoms as they do for the individual plans, these plans can be a real help when having to deal with the health care needs of multiple people.

Family health insurance can also come in the managed care variety as well and pretty much work the same way as do the individual managed care health insurance plans.  The cost of the family managed care plans will be higher than that of the individual managed care plan, but will cost less than a family indemnity plan.

What Are Group Insurance Plans?

Many companies are now offering their employees group health insurance coverage.  These employers may pay the bill for some of the premium.  Since many of these employers now offer both types of health insurance coverage, the type of policy you choose will determine your out-of-pocket costs.  Generally these group health insurance plans will cost you less than a plan you were to purchase on your own.  If this type of group insurance plan is available to you at your workplace, you’ll definitely want to take advantage of it.  If it is not offered at your workplace, perhaps you could suggest that your employer consider offering a group health insurance plan.

If your plan at work does not include a health insurance benefit or you are self employed or simply looking to provide health insurance coverage for yourself and your family outside the workplace environment, a great place to start your research is Blue Cross Blue Shield (www dot BCBS dot com) or Aetna (www dot aetna dot com). This is not necessarily an endorsement but is a good place to start in understanding the types of health insurance plans available out there today. These two large providers operate in most of our 50 states so your likelihood of learning about the types of health insurance plans available in your state from different insurers is high.

As always, seek the advice of a professional financial planner before deciding on a course of action that you do not fully understand.



By: Debbie Parkinson

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The health care plan that President Obama has proposed will do nothing to solve our health care crisis.  All the plan will do is help those who now have sickness or diseases to help them pay for their treatment and prescription drugs.

 

Now you might say well that’s what it should do, shouldn’t it?  Well you are right it will help do that but that doesn’t solve our health care crisis.  The only thing that will finally solve that problem is education.

 

What I mean by that is you need to teach people what they must do to be healthy and stay healthy.  My proposal is to establish health learning centers in various cities all over the country.

 

In those learning centers people would learn about healthy diet procedures, proper exercise, weight control, stress management and mind control.  The staff that would run these centers would be people who would be highly qualified to teach the various methods of good health care practices.

 

I know however that this is probably a proposal that will never come about because of such strong resistance from Big Pharma, the medical community and even Congress.  It seems the biggest reason it won’t is because creed is more important to them then our citizen’s health condition.

 

I become very angry and saddened that this kind of attitude has become part of our culture today.  As a senior citizen I can remember in the past when the government and the medical community were more caring then today.  As for as Big Pharma their existence was barely known back then.

 

Just yesterday, July 1st, I watched President Obama’s address at the town hall meeting in Annandale, Virginia.  I usually don’t listen to any of his rhetoric because he is just like the typical politician that, I don’t believe, has the interest in our beliefs at heart.

 

However I turned on CNN while I was having lunch to see what the latest news was and they happened to be carrying this town hall meeting.

 

After listening for a while, I was about ready to turn off the TV but when he was ready to open up questions from the audience I decided to stay tuned.  What really caught my attention was a lady in the audience who they had given a microphone to her to ask a question.

 

With tears in her eyes and difficulty talking she relayed to the President her sad story about her sickness and her inability to pay for her medical insurance or doctor visits.  I never really heard the seriousness of her ailment because she was so distraught she had difficulty talking clearly.

 

Then Mr. Obama had her come close to him, hugged her and assured her that her problem would be taken care of by his illustrious health care plan.  His remarks even made me sick at my stomach because of the great things he said it would do for everyone.

 

His ineffective health care plan is no more than a band aid treatment for her ailment or anyone else which is the same kind of band aid treatments anyone gets from their doctor and Big Pharma every day.

 

According to her, whatever her ailment was to begin with, she now has other ailments to contend with which are even bigger problems than the ones she started out with.

 

So here is just one person in several million whom are crying out for solutions to their health problems and still not getting the right answers to solve them.  And as I previously stated, health education is the only answer to solve people’s illnesses and diseases.

 

Since I believed the government, Big Pharma or the medical community will never help solve this gigantic health crisis, I and many others who preach alternative healing methods are left with the duty to spread their beliefs far and wide.

 

I can tell you this; I will never quit preaching my beliefs as long as I am physically and mentally able to do so.  It’s my strong passion and I spread my beliefs in my website, my blog, my 6-lesson ECourse and many articles I write and submit to directories.

 

Just recently I heard Mr. Obama say that because Big Pharma is interested in his health care plan, they are willing to invest $80 billion to support it.  I find that real interesting.  Do you believe that they are really interested in solving America’s health problem or are their interest in what they might get in return for their investment?

 

I know what I believe – what do you believe?  I would be interested in your comments.

 



By: Sonny Julius

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