When considering affordable health insurance you must first determine what forms are available. Depending on your circumstances some forms will be clearly preferable. So when you ask, “What choices do I have for health insurance?” you are asking a complex question.
The primary forms of affordable health insurance are employer-provided health care, government provided/assisted public health care, individual provided private health care, and plans like COBRA, which merge some elements of private care with some elements of governmental care. Which you use will depend first on which are available to you.
For the vast majority of Americans the only valid option is employer-provided care, which will usually come in one of two forms: an HMO or a PPO. HMOs are managed health care plans that restrict the choices of providers and treatments as part of a policy to control costs.
PPO offer more choices, but tend to charge higher premiums, and many employers do not offer them. They are available in some cases though. If you are given a choice you will have to consider the offered benefits of each carefully. Your employer may have chosen to offer comparable value, which will often mean that the ultimate out of pocket cost to you of the PPO may be higher, but the options wider.
For many other Americans some form of government assisted/provided care is the only option: “entitlement” programs like Medicare and Medicaid provide for the elderly after the age of 65, for the legally disabled (in some instances) and for the extremely poor (in some restricted instances.) States, too, may offer some programs providing medical care, and again tend to go to the older citizen, the disabled, and the severely impoverished when they are offered.
You may not be eligible for many of these programs, though: many states that offer them are very cautious about who can apply, as the cost of unchecked medical aid could bankrupt many state governments.
Individually purchased private health care, like employer provided plans, can be broken into the HMO and the PPO with similar cost/benefit ratios. The main difference will be out-of-pocket costs. It is estimated that only a small percentage of Americans purchase private health care through individual buyers. The cost is prohibitive without some form of aid for many, who go uninsured due to inability to pay regular premiums.
COBRA, not precisely a plan as such, is an extension of existing health insurance procured through an employer. If you are laid off or otherwise cut off from the employer-provided plan COBRA can be used to provide for health care for up to 18 months…but at your own expense. However there are government subsidies of up to 65%, which can offset the problems of payment during periods of unemployment.
When you have considered the various options open to you, you will be better able to determine what form of coverage you want to obtain. Then you will have answered the question: “What Choices Do I Have For Health Insurance?”
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