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Find the Best Health Insurance Plan

Choosing the best health insurance in Georgia doesn’t have to be complicated. But, there are many choices. For example, the right plan for a young, healthy male with limited financial resources may be different from that of an established married couple who are about to start a family.

How to Find the Best Health Insurance Plan – 5 Tips

Here are five tips to help you choose the best health insurance plan:

1. Strike the right balance of insurance premium cost versus out-of-pocket cost. Let’s compare two individual health insurance plans below. We’re ignoring the quality of the doctor list, the reputation of each insurer and many of the policy details such as office visit copayments and prescription drug benefits. We are instead concentrating on the relationship between annual “out-of-pocket” cost and the annual premium cost.

 

 

With Plan 1, you pay more in insurance premiums and get more in medical benefits. Or, are you a risk taker – willing to expose yourself to $2,000 in additional out-of-pocket costs in order to get $1,200 in annual insurance premium savings through Plan 2?

2. Check out the list of participating doctors and hospitals. For some people, being able to visit a particular doctor or hospital is very important. For others, just knowing that their insurance companies have a list of good, quality doctors is enough. So, check out each insurer’s provider list before you buy.

3. Review your medications. Many insurance companies maintain a list of prescription drugs called a “formulary.” Drugs that are on the formulary typically cost less to the patient. Most insurers give you an online tool you can use to see if your drugs are on their formulary. If your prescription is not on a particular insurer’s formulary, then you can expect to pay more or possibly all of that drug’s cost.

4. Consider the plan’s pre-existing condition provision. Insurers handle pre-existing conditions in a number of different ways including:

• No pre-existing condition provision. Some insurers do not impose a pre-existing condition provision. The catch is that you must be healthy enough to qualify for the policy in the first place.
• Credit given for prior coverage. Some insurers have a pre-existing condition provision that credits against it time that the policy holder was covered under a prior plan.
• Pre-existing condition provision with no prior coverage credit. Under this type of policy, the insurer will not pay for claims in the first year that are due to a pre-existing condition.

5. Insure catastrophic risks. Having your house burn down is a catastrophic event. Needing a $100,000 surgery is catastrophic. Being unable to earn a paycheck because of a disability is catastrophic. You should spend scarce dollars to cover these catastrophic risks. On the other hand, there are a number of very inconvenient events that do not necessarily need to be covered by insurance. For example, needing to pay for a $750 dental crown or a $300 pair of eye glasses. Build a nest egg of three to six months of take-home pay that you can use to pay for these non-catastrophic events. Over the long term, you may be better off.

Use QuoteJuice to compare individual health plans in Georgia. Click here to give it a try. You just answer a couple basic questions about who you’re looking to get health insurance for, and then QuoteJuice works its magic to show you various plans you can sort and resort by adjusting a few variables you can use to find a good balance between cost and benefits. Do you want more advice on choosing the perfect plan? A QuoteJuice health insurance agent in Georgia can help you today. Give us a call!