Acquiring a personal healthcare insurance policy

By: Alston Balkcom

Purchasing a personal health insurance can be scary for anyone who has always been covered by their employer’s group insurance. I’ve specialized in helping my clients acquire quality health coverage for well over ten years now and have been a Connecticut insurance broker since 1985. I’d like to share with you the process I use when helping my clients find the best health insurance plan to cover themselves and their families.
The three things we look at are affordability, quality of coverage and the quality of the company.
Company- Your health insurance carrier should be financially stable and have a good record of paying claims.
Quality of coverage - The healthcare coverage must meet your needs. It should cover doctors, hospitals, labs and prescriptions. It should also have doctors and hospitals in their networks that are convenient to your home and workplace.
Price- Your healthcare plan must be priced fairly relative to the benefits provided.

The basic process we use is to:
Determine which individual or family medical companies are worthy of being considered.
Determine which plans offered by those health care insurance offer adequate coverage
Determine which plans are priced best relative to the health insurance coverages provided

Health Insurance Companies
A personal medical insurance carrier should have good financial ratings and be in good standing with your state’s insurance department. You may also want to do a web search for complaints.
You might search for "Mega Health complaints" before completing an application with that or any other company. Every medical insurance company has some complaints just by virtue of the volume of clients they have. That being said, a be warned when there are too many complaints.
Another issue to look at is how much they pay in benefits as a percentage of the premium they take in. A quality health insurance carrier will spend about 80% of the money they take in to cover their policy holders' medical claims.
Coverage - What does your health insurance plan cover?
There are 2 parts of coverage. One is the treatments that are covered. The other is the network’s list of physicians that the insurance policy includes.
Covered Health Care Procedures

You should read through your insurance plan’s outline of coverage or official brochure to see how doctors, hospitals and prescriptions are covered. Your health insurance plan should cover you for physicians and hospitals and the hospital and should have a good lifetime maximum benefit. I suggest at least 5 million in coverage.

Health Insurance Exclusions and Limitations
Most if not all healthcare coverage policies will have a list of treatments and services that they won't pay for. Most of the excluded or limited items in this section are reasonable and are included in the plans of other companies as well. Insurance Plans usually will not cover plastic surgery for example. However, there are often limitations that you may find in one company's plan but not in the contract of its competitors. Coverage for preexisting conditions is one example of this. Most plans will not cover the costs of a normal pregnancy. The ones that do usually be more expensive when compared to otherwise similar plans that don’t cover maternity. The exclusions and limitations section of your policy or its out line of coverage should be read carefully before you make your decision about purchase.
Health Insurance Network List of Physicians and Hospitals
Knowing which doctors are in your medical insurance company's network is important. You might be able to find a list of doctor’s who accept a given insurance plan online or by calling your health care insurance broker.
Dollars and Cents – Finding the best low cost health care policy
It is easy to compare personal health insurance costs, but its much harder to be certain that you are getting good coverage for your dollars.
Selecting Between Health Insurance Plans
When you have eliminated the bad insurance companies and have eliminated the plans offered by those companies that don’t meet your needs, you are ready to compare plans and prices.
The Best Health CARE Insurance Coverage for the Money
The best health care insurance coverage, may not be the best plan for you. Often the best plan is overpriced and does not offer coverage that justifies the extra that it costs. Make sure that any plan you decide to own is:
Provided by a good healthcare insurance carrier
Will cover your health care needs well
Fits your budget

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Alston Balkcom is a veteran insurance professional and has been serving in this capacity for over 20 years. You can find private healthcare insurance quotes on his website.

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