A Wise Decision: Health Care Insurance Policy
There are many health care policy issues to consider when buying a new or changing an old health care insurance policy, including cost, choice in providers and filing claims. In addition, the individual must read the fine print and make sure the types of illnesses and care needed for those illnesses are covered by the plan so that he is not left with surprise expenses on top of his insurance premiums.
Considerations
Elderly individuals and family that care for them or cover them with their health care insurance policies should make sure that the policy covers all types of long-term care so that if those various types of care are needed they are already covered by the policy. For instance, most elderly individuals can live in their own homes at first, caring for most of their needs by themselves. However, they may need someone to come in on a weekly basis to clean or grocery shop, or even do a health check up. These expenses can add up and a good health care insurance policy should cover some of those expenses.
As the elderly individual's health deteriorates, he may need to have someone live in the home on a full time basis, or may need to be taken to an adult day care facility by a family member while they are at work so that meals, health care and entertainment can be taken care of by professionals. These also can be quite costly and should be covered by a health care insurance policy. The next level of care is the assisted living facility, in which residents usually still live in their own condos or duplexes so that they have the feel of having their own home and independence, but are also supervised twenty-four hours per day and have medical help on staff, as well as the option for meals to go to and a cleaning service. Many of these assisted care facilities also have a full time nursing home also on campus so that if an individual needs to make the move to a full time care environment, the transition is not as great.
In addition to these long-term care issues, a good health care insurance policy should also be clear on what providers that individual may choose from in order to be covered. A HMO policy says that an individual must use providers from an approved list in order to be covered and PPOs and POS's give the individual a better rate if they use approved providers. The health care insurance policy should also be clear as to what the deductable and co-pays are depending on the service, and whether there is a yearly limit on out-of-pocket expenses so that once the limit has been reached the insurance company picks up one hundred percent of the cost after that time.
