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Although health insurance has helped countless people who would have been buried under a mountain of debt because of medical bills, not all health insurance plans are golden. Each health insurance plan has a number of things you need to consider before you buy health insurance and pay attention to once you have a health insurance plan.

Depending on your age, existing health problems, and anticipated needs, you will need to select an insurance plan that will help to reduce the amount you will need to pay in order to maintain your health. What is covered and coverage amounts can be tweaked and changed to fit the needs of certain people or groups. For instance, someone in their mid-twenties with no family history or personal history of diseases or disorders probably doesnt need a health insurance plan that will allow frequent doctor visits. For people in their mid-twenties, rather than being at risk for lingering sicknesses, they are much more likely to be injured in a car accident or hurt while partaking in physical activity like mountain biking or rock climbing. However, an older person, especially if some conditions have developed over the years, may need to see a doctor on a set schedule for checkups or recurring problems. You should also consider what kind of need for prescription medication you will have. Some plans only allow a certain amount of coverage for prescription drugs, and even have different coverage rates for different classes of drugs, as well as name brand versus generic drugs. There is also a limit set for coverage in each category. For instance, most insurance policies will include a ceiling for how much they will pay for your prescription drugs throughout the year. If you go above that limit, you will probably have to pay out of pocket.

Insurance plans, especially PPO plans, require you to use a doctor inside your insurance providers network of doctors if you want to use your insurance plan. If you go to a doctor outside your plan, they will accept your insurance, but you are likely to get a bill for the majority of the visit. If you need specialized services, it can be difficult to break away from seeing a general physician and seek the help of a specialist in a specific area. Because of the nature of PPOs, there is a lot of red tape that can limit what you can do and exactly what is covered.

Preexisting conditions can also have an effect on your health insurance and what can be covered. Some insurance companies will not cover you if you have certain preexisting conditions, especially more serious conditions like cancer or a history of heart problems. There can also be a waiting period once you get coverage before an insurance plan will cover certain preexisting conditions and help you with the costs associated with treating those preexisting conditions. This is commonly an issue if you allow your insurance to lapse, either between jobs or for other reasons.

Most people do not pay much attention to how much their health insurance actually costs, especially if it is through their employer and it comes out of their check. Many people would be surprised how much they spent if they added up their yearly health insurance premiums, but as they do not write a check for it, it goes unnoticed. In many cases, you could have gotten by cheaper without insurance, but that ignores the risk of having a major accident or serious illness. Doctor visits are manageable expenses for most people, but going to the emergency room or extended hospital stays can run thousands or tens of thousands of dollars. It is these larger, catastrophic events that insurance truly benefits its users. For most people on most years, the health insurance company comes out ahead, but you never know what could happen tomorrow.

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