Purchasing a personal healthcare insurance plan

By: Alston Balkcom

Purchasing a private healthcare insurance policy can be scary for anyone who has always been covered by their employer’s group insurance. I’ve specialized in helping clients select affordable health care protection for well over ten years now and have been a Connecticut insurance agent since the 1980s. 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 price, quality of coverage and the strength of the company.
Company- Your health insurance company should be stable financially and have a history 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 physicians and hospitals in their networks that are convenient to you.
Affordability- Your medical plan must be priced competitively relative to the benefits provided.

The basic process we use is to:
Determine which individual medical companies are worthy of being considered.
Determine which plans offered by those health care carriers offer proper coverages
Determine which plans have the lowest overall cost relative to the health insurance benefits provided

Health Insurance Companies
A personal health carrier should have good financial ratings and be in good standing with your state’s insurance department. You may also want to do a Google search for complaints.
You might search for "Mega Life and Health complaints" before completing an application with the company. Each medical insurance provider has some complaints just by virtue of the volume of clients they have. However, a red flag should go up in your mind if the complaints are too numerous.
Another thing to be concerned with is how much they pay in benefits as a percentage of the premium they take in. A quality medical insurance co will write checks for about 80% of the money they take in to pay for their policyholders' healthcare procedures.
Level of Protection - What does the health insurance plan cover?
There are two aspects of coverage. One is the treatments that are paid for by the plan. The other is the network’s list of physicians that the insurance contract includes.
Covered Healthcare Procedures
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 dollars of coverage. You should read through your insurance plan’s outline of coverage or official brochure to see how doctors, hospitals and prescriptions are covered.

Insurance Exclusions and Limitations in Health care Policies

Most if not all healthcare insurance plans will have a list of treatments and services that they won't pay for. Most of the items in this section are reasonable and are included in the policies of other companies also. Plans typically won't cover a nose job for example. There are are often limitations that you will discover in one insurance policy but not in another plan. Pregnancy coverage is one example of this. Most plans will not cover the costs of a the birth of a child. 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 commit to purchasing any medical insurance plan.
Health Care Insurance Networks
Knowing which doctors are in your medical insurance company's network is an issue to address. You should be able to find a list of doctor’s who accept a given insurance plan by doing a Google search or by calling your healthcare insurance agent.
Cost – Finding the best low cost health care coverage
It is easy to compare private health insurance premiums, but it is much harder to ensure that you are getting good coverage for your money.
Comparing Health Insurance Policies
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 Healthcare 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 an extra dollar in medical benefits for each extra dollar it costs. Make sure that any plan you buy is:
Provided by a good health insurance carrier
Will cover your health needs well
Is affordable

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Alston Balkcom is a veteran insurance professional and has been serving in this capacity since 1985. You can find personal medical insurance quotes on his site.

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