There are basically two categories when dealing with Health Insurance, the traditional and the managed care. Under these categories there are different types of plans of health insurance: the traditional indemnity plans, which are now often called fee-for-service plans; the PPO, or Preferred Provider Organizations; the POS, or Point-Of-Service plans; and the HMOs, or Health Maintenance Organizations.
The traditional indemnity plan is like auto insurance where you pay for the expenses upfront, through deductible, and then the insurance company will take care of the rest of the bill. This has been the type of health insurance the majority of people are comfortable with. At present however, the norm is the “free for service” coverage. With this type of coverage, you can choose your hospital, your doctor and the other health care providers. But, the plan is actually something like out of pocket expense since usually there is a deductible amount before the health insurance company pays for your expense. You may have to pay this up front and then have them reimburse you later. However in some instances your health care provider may also bill your health insurance directly.
The managed care health insurance has become more popular in the ten years. For the most part people who have private health insurance also have some form managed care insurance. The managed care plans are Preferred Provider Organizations (PPOs), Point-of-Service (POS) and Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs). All these basically involve an agreement between certain health care providers and the health insurance company. And the insurance companies offer financial incentives to the insured to choose their health care providers.
Aside from the typical health insurance, there is also the short term health insurance for people who do not yet have the traditional and managed care insurance, such as recent college graduate or those in between jobs. The short term health insurance is flexible and may cover you for 1 to 12 months at a relatively affordable rate. Then of course there is the student health insurance for the undergraduate and graduate students.
