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A health insurance plan is a legal agreement entered into by an insurance company and an individual or an organization. As per the legal agreement, the insurance company agrees to pay a specified amount of medical expenses arising during the contract period in exchange of a payment termed as premium. The cost covered by the insurance company will purely depend on the premium amount and the type of Health insurance policy that you choose – for individual – or offered – for organization.

Before you decide on the exact type of health insurance plan you need or an organization need, it is always better to know the different coverage in market. It is good to know what you are eligible for and also the various benefits of that health insurance plan offered, which should help you to take the correct insurance plan.

Below is a short illustration to make the distinction between the individual and group health insurance more clearly:

1. Individual Health Insurance. Individual health insurance plans are designed for unemployed or self-employed people who paid premium in exchange for health insurance coverage.

Individual health insurance plans are expensive, because the cost involved in medical expenses is very high, the narrow spread of risk makes the risk factor of the insurance company become higher and the premium payment comes from a single individual. The individual who takes the health insurance also needs to go through certain medical tests (as per the insurance company) in order to get the health insurance plan, but under individual health insurance you can also cover for your spouse or children.

In relation with the high cost of an individual health insurance plan, the insurance company usually let you choose Health insurance plan that you need, so as to adjust with your budget and you can renew it annually as far as you need and you like.

2. Group Health Insurance. Group health insurance plan is designed for large number of people and in majority of cases for companies or organizations. Group health insurance is usually taken by company or organization for their employees as an added advantage for the employee and a benefit given by the employer. Since the premium amount is usually paid by the company or organization, majority of the employed people will have group health insurance plan.

In group health insurance, the insurance company covers everybody under the group and this effect in the larger span of risk which makes the risk factor of the insurance company become lower. As the insurance covered a lot of who are assumed to have the same level of risk, then no pre medical test is required for group health insurance. The previous condition plus higher receiving from a single source – whereas they are collecting premium from everybody in group – resulting in lower rate of premium amount, which is make sense for insurance companies as they are covering a large group of people and probably they will end up paying or covering medical expense for a relatively less number of people.

However, in a group health insurance the plan is selected by the company or organization for all the employees and incase you leave the company or organization where you work, you will not be entitled to claim the insurance benefit any longer.

In the end, I would recommend that every individual should have a health insurance plan. You might be in good health or rarely visit a doctor but nobody can predict what is going to happen tomorrow. One illness or even an accident can result in high medical expense which can upset your financial situation. However, just by paying a premium you can be assured that the amount specified by the insurance companies will be paid by them and you can live in peace.

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Us government have many options for US residents for health insurance, checking for the options and getting rate quotes from individual health insurance companies is the best possible way for families to find the most inexpensive or the most affordable health insurance policies.

Unemployed fellowships are specifically worried about what is available to them. Any family in US making under a certain dollar estimation, that is generally well below ,000 a year must have some approach to government health insurance. There are many different policies and plans for families and children, and each should be extremely researched like those who are not able to work with private insurance plans. It can get reasonably hard to come up of the appropriate insurance policy. Respective organizations are in business to provide health care policies. Thus people can pick what fits their demands best and these agencies offer multiple different insurance packages. You must get an idealistic coverage and make a point you get it for a price that is affordable for what you are comfortably paying. Take advantage of the online health quote services available to you for free. On this account, you should certainly collect some insurance quotes online to discover who can give you the best plan with affordable rates. The health quote websites can save your lot of time and energy.  Getting a quote from each provider individually would take long hours to complete.  But fortunately there are costless services you can use to get health rates from the versatile companies in no time.


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A recent New York Times highlighted Maine’s attempts at comprehensive healthcare reform. Their experiences serve as a cautionary tale for Congress.   The state established a public health insurance plan, expanded Medicare and Medicaid eligibility, and banned insurers from refusing to cover people with pre-existing conditions, but those actions have done  little to insure more of its residents.  Contrary to the promises of public option supporters, health care costs have only continued to rise in the state.

Reasons for the high health care costs range from the state-specific to the general. Unlike the bill that recently passed the House of Representatives, Maine’s healthcare reform legislation didn’t include a mandate to buy health insurance plans. It’s a vicious cycle: forcing health insurance companies to offer policies to unhealthy people with pre-existing conditions raises the rates for younger people; young adults will be even less likely to buy health insurance if their premiums go up, which results in the insurer’s risk being spread among less people. In the end, the older, unhealthier population remains in the pool and must contend with less affordable health insurance. Therefore, there is a larger uninsured population.

Granted, Maine is a market dominated by just one private health insurance company (which, with its effective monopoly, can increase premiums to their liking); and its population is older, sicker, and poorer than the U.S. in general. Senator Olympia Snowe points to her state as a cautionary tale of what may happen if drastic changes are made too fast. Snowe is a Republican that supports healthcare reform but is against the public option. Budgeting problems have caused Maine to cap enrollment of its own public option health insurance plan at under 9,000. The federal government, unlike most states, is allowed to run a deficit. However, it isn’t exactly rolling in the money right now either.

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The reform bill passed in the House has the potential to change what all health insurance plans cover. An amendment proposed by Bart Stupak, which passed in the House of Representatives, prevents federal funding from being used to buy any health insurance plan that offers coverage of elective abortions. In exchange for the votes of pro-life Democrats essential to pass the legislation, the healthcare reform bill was modified. The previous language only prevented government money from being used directly to pay for an abortion.

Obviously, the public option will not include abortion coverage. However, the ban extends to private health insurers participating in the government’s insurance exchange. Low- and medium-income individuals and families will receive subsidies in order to buy a health insurance plan. A compromise proposed by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, which would serve to distinguish private dollars from federal money and allow insurers to cover abortion services with solely the latter, was rejected. Many people with employer-provided or individual health insurance have abortion coverage provided in their policies. In order to enter the potentially lucrative exchange market, insurers might eliminate that coverage entirely.

Those who pay for their entire health insurance policy out-of-pocket will still be allowed to buy plans that provide abortion coverage, although the availability and affordability of these plans will most likely decrease. Pro-choice advocates, such as Planned Parenthood, are crying foul.

Interestingly, the amendment received 240 votes–higher than the actual bill’s margin of victory. Assuming that many pro-choice Democrats voted against it, this result means that a significant portion of Republicans voted for the amendment. Whether they wanted to salvage something they wanted out of a bill that was almost certain to pass or sabotage the bill by creating a schism between Democrats, they decided to amend a bill while rejecting the bill itself.

(Image: mahalie under CC 2.0)

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