What should a family look for when buying health insurance so that it fits all their needs?

Host: What should a family look for when buying a health insurance so that it fits all of their needs?

Bob Hurley: So, when you are looking at health insurance as a family you want to assess what are your needs. Do you or your spouse go to the doctor frequently? Are you somebody that really feels a need to go out and see your doctor every time you have a cold? Are your children at that age where they are running in to the doctor every few weeks because they have got the newest and latest cold that's running around the school?

So, assess how much you are utilizing care and that may determine what kind of Health Insurance Plan you get. If you are somebody's that's going to the doctor a lot and that you feel like your children are going to the doctor a lot, you may want a Health Maintenance Organization type of plan and what that means is simply, you are typically bound to a much tighter network of doctors, number one and so you want to look to see if your doctors that you prefer are in that network of doctors that are approved by that Maintenance Company. Then, you also want to look at what the co-payments are. Often times, in Health Maintenance Organization or an HMO it is going to have co-payment arrangement where you go to see the doctor that costs you $20 or $25 and that maybe a convenient way for you to access care if you are a high utilizer. If not, if you are not a family that tends to go the doctor a lot you might want to look at a different type of insurance program typically, referred to as a Preferred Provider Organization or a PPO. These are typically, network systems where insurance companies have a contract with a large network of doctors to provide care at a discount or at a negotiated rate.

What are the advantages of going with a PPO is you can often buy up your deductible or buy a higher deductible for your family and you can actually save money then on your monthly premium, so that maybe a way that you might want to go. Again, you are not somebody that's going to the doctor frequently, you want to save money on your monthly premium, you have resources available to you in your savings account or whatever to be able to cover a higher deductible health insurance plan and so that's a comfortable plan for you, you may want to go in that direction.

So the good news is there are many different products available to you today. The internet is an extremely powerful way to see what products are available in your specific market area. You can compare those products side by side now with the power of the internet, our site does that extremely well. You are comparing health insurance plans from the leading health insurance company so you can trust the fact that you are seeing good plans. Then finally, if you have any questions even after you have done all your homework, pick up the phone and talk to a licensed health insurance professional. We certainly have people available that can talk to as you are surfing the web and shopping on our website, you can talk to other licensed health insurance professionals that are in your particular region. But get the help that you need in order to feel comfortable you are making the right decision. But then get covered don't delay this process too long. You don't want to go without coverage and there are other ways that you can actually save money too if you actually break up your family into multiple polices and we can talk some more about that.