Your Options for Family Health Insurance
Usually the most affordable method of purchasing family health insurance is through employer-provided coverage. Because the costs of coverage are shared by the employee and the employer, your family ends up paying lower premiums. Of course, you'll also face limitations because most employers only offer one or two plans to choose from.
Another possibility is to purchase your own family health insurance plan. It may cost a little more (the average family premium is over $400 per month) but you will be able to choose from a network of doctors and you will be able to select your own deductible.
Here's a great tip: enter "The Consumer's Guide to Health Insurance" in a search engine like Google and you will get dozens of results that offer you free guides to family health insurance. Then choose two or three and request them. This will give you comprehensive information on the subject.
Medical Insurance Issues
Picking affordable health insurance should be done carefully. Some plans offer lower premiums or deductibles but don't cover many important medical needs, such as preventative medicine. Preventative medicine includes yearly screenings, immunizations, and regular physicals that are meant to detect early signs of health problems, such as cancer, or to prevent problems from developing, such as measles or polio. Even though preventative medicine is often recommended by doctors, not all insurance plans cover them nor will they extend their coverage in most cases if a doctor requires the tests to be done. For this reason, you need to carefully review your policy regarding the types of preventative medicine your family needs to ensure that you can take these medical precautions.
Prescription coverage is another important issue. Some insurance plans are moving away from paying the costs of prescriptions. Of those that do, you will still be expected to pay a co-payment between $5 to $35 per prescription. Those costs can add up, but they are considerably less than the $100 and up price tag on the most common prescriptions that your family may need. It's a good idea to search around for a health plan that covers some prescription costs.
How to Buy a Family Health Insurance Plan
If you are going to buy a private family health insurance plan, it's wise to shop around. Many insurance providers are willing to provide you with a health insurance quote based on your requirements. These health insurance quotes will make it much easier to compare plans.
Here's another great tip: go to 'The National Committee for Quality Assurance' website (www.ncqa.org) and click on 'Site Map'. Then scroll down and click on 'Resource Library' where you will find lots of good information relating to family health care. If you are in-between jobs you can also consider "Short Term Health Insurance." Simply do a search in Google for this term and you will find lots of information.
For more information go to Family Health Insurance. You will also discover why organic milk is so much worse for everybody in the family compared to regular milk.
