Choosing Medical Insurance: Predictability Or Flexibility
Making sure that you purchase the best private medical insurance plan means finding the private medical insurance plan that is a fit for your needs, both medical and financial. While you certainly want to determine the financial coverage that you might need for your anticipated medical expenses, you also should consider whether flexibility of choice or predictability of costs is more important to you when assessing whether a healthcare plan is right for you.
For example, if you are the head of household for a growing, active family, then predictable out of pocket costs will be important. A young family trying to live within a budget may not be in a good position to pay out of pocket for medical services that were not planned for. For example, could you pay 20% of the costs for doctors, surgery, and a hospital stay for a child’s broken bone? What if Mom becomes pregnant and this is a surprise? Would you rather be able to estimate the fixed amount you would owe in that situation?
If you are responsible for taking care of the medical needs for a young family, you will want your out of pocket medical expenses to be as predictable as possible. To do this, search for managed healthcare plans when looking to buy medical coverage directly or when evaluating options provided as part of your employee benefits.
You will pay more each month for the premium for a managed care plan but in exchange you should expect to pay fixed amount co-pays for specific medical services and your deductable should be lower. Remember, co-pays and lower deductable means more predictable costs when evaluating a healthcare plan.
In exchange for predictability of fixed co-pay out of pocket costs, you will be required to use a network of doctors, hospitals and other medical service providers approved by the plan. You most likely will also need to follow certain referral procedures before your visits to specialists are approved for payment and you might need to get pre-approval for certain medical services.
On the other hand, if you are single, healthy and anticipate the only time you might need a doctor or hospital is when you have a catastrophic illness or serious accident, you might opt for indemnity health insurance coverage. In exchange for lower premiums and you paying a percentage of your medical expenses out of pocket, you will have flexibility in choosing your doctors, specialists, hospitals and other medical service providers. This might be a good option for you especially if you can cover unexpected out of pocket costs that are dependent upon the fees charged and you travel heavily and reside in different places for periods of time as part of your lifestyle.
In summary, when choosing a healthcare plan that meets your needs, don’t forget about considering how out of pocket costs are arranged and if this arrangement supports your needs for flexibility of choice or predictability of costs for medical services.
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