It is crucial when reviewing your Connecticut Health Insurance options to reflect on exactly what the structure of health services are in Connecticut, and how you can go about getting the best value for your health dollars.
Health insurance is designed to assist with the costs of a number of different services that cumulatively are lumped together under the heading of ‘Health Care’. This can have a number of different elements to it which might include hospital care and stays, the drugs that we are prescribed when we are ill, and the visits that we make to our Doctors.
There are many different ways that Connecticut Health Insurance helps to draw the dots and bring these different elements together and provide the services that we expect from our health care, and here are five of them:
1/ HMO Plans – Health Maintenance Organization –
These can work very well if you are mostly based in one location and it is not inconvenient to only visit a very narrow set of hospitals or Doctors. Much of the strength of HMOs comes from the fact that a primary care physician is appointed to look after your needs, and so those people involved in HMO Plans tend to form much closer bonds with their care givers because they may see them on a regular basis.
Ironically, this is also the main weakness of HMOs, because you simply don’t have the same flexibility as some other types of Connecticut Health Insurance will give you over which hospitals and medical staff to receive care from.
You may be able to use other hospitals and doctors, but this is usually only after a referral from your own Doctor and you may not be reimbursed for the cost of the treatment.
2/ PPO Plans – Preferred Provider Organizations –
This is where the insurance company has contracts that are specifically with a group of hospitals, and as a result they are able to secure services at lower rates.
PPO Plans often have cost on their side if you get treatment from the hospitals and doctors that the insurance companies have the deals with. But treatment away from these providers is going to be more expensive, and you may have to pay extra money towards the cost of your treatment if you choose a hospital or Doctor that is not on the list of Preferred Providers.
3/ POS Plans – Point of Service Plans –
These are designed to be a kind of cross between PPO Plans and HMO Plans.
You still have to select a primary care physician like with typical HMOs, but you have a higher level of flexibility in the network of hospitals you can use, and you can always choose to go outside that network if you don’t mind paying a higher percentage of the cost of the treatment.
4/ Indemnity Plans –
On the plus side indemnity plans are probably the most flexible option that is available of these Connecticut Health Insurance options, though they differ in that before the insurance company will start to pay out any money, you are required to pay a deductible.
Once the expenses that have been incurred go above the level of that deductible then normally 80% of the cost would be met by the indemnity plan, and the other 20% would be met by you.
The advantage of this arrangement is that there are generally no limits placed on the hospitals or Doctors that can be used, and so you can choose for yourself where you wish to receive treatment.
5/ Limited Benefit Plans –
This is where the cover is limited to a specific disease that you want to be covered for, and does not cover the wider scope of what may be wrong with you.
It is a good idea to look at a range of policies and get a selection of Connecticut Health Insurance Quotes before deciding which path to pursue.
