Most of us are hoping to find health insurance with a low deductible. A deductible is the amount of money that you must pay for, out of your own pocket, before your health insurance company will cover your medical bills. It may seem counterintuitive, but there are reasons why some people prefer high deductible health insurance.
A high deductible health insurance plan, or HDHP, is a type of consumer driven health insurance plan that is an alternative to the more common managed care plans. Many people feel that this type of health insurance gives them more control over their health care costs and choices of providers. Some feel that an HDHP causes people to become more responsible for their own health, since they are the ones who will be paying most of their own health care bills, (instead of an insurance company). An HDHP might also be called Catastrophic Health Insurance, because it the kind of health insurance that one would use in case of a major illness or severe accident.
What kind of care does an HDHP cover? It covers some preventative services, such as physicals, (including women’s annual examinations, and check up visits for infants). It may cover immunizations. Check with your HDHP to see what, specifically, it will cover, because not all of these plans are the same. If you have already paid off your deductible, your visits to an emergency room will be covered by your HDHP. In general, it will also cover hospital stays, x-rays and the cost of surgical expenses.
There are some advantages to having an HDHP. You will be paying much lower monthly premiums than a person who has other kinds of health insurance. You also avoid the co-payments when you visit a doctor. If you cannot get health insurance from your employer, or are self employed, you can enroll in an HDHP. Having this kind of health insurance makes you eligible to open a Health Savings Account, which you can use to help pay for some of your medical expenses.
There are also some disadvantages. If you are someone with a chronic illness that requires several doctor’s visits each year, your cost for these visits may be more than the money you would save from having a low monthly premium. If you need to see a specialist, the HDHP is not going to cover those medical costs. This insurance is designed for people who are are currently healthy, who are not pregnant, and who only want their health insurance policy to take care of them in case of a terrible accident, or in the case of a serious illness (such as cancer). The HDHP works best with a Health Savings Account. If you do not have the extra cash to open one, this could become a problem.
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