When you hear the word Insurance, what word instantly comes to your mind?
We’ve been there. We’ve been hit by unforeseen hospital/emergency bills that take a major toll. Nothing is worse than having a medical emergency and realizing the cost associated with that emergency, and at that frantic time in your life, do you really want to be thinking about the cost?
Today I want to take a second to educate you on what kind of insurance you have. Yes, YOU! Do you know what your deductible is? What’s your Premium? What kind of plan do you have? What’s your co-pay?
There are a lot of moving parts in health insurance, so let’s simplify. There are three major points of info you should be familiar with regarding your health insurance plan- Your Deductible, Co-insurance, and Co-pay.
First off, your deductible is how much you must pay out of your very own pocket before the insurance will cover any remaining costs. For instance, your daughter is jumping on the bed and breaks her leg. You know that you’re deductible is $2,000, so you’ll pay that $2,000 and your health insurance will pay the remaining cost.
Next, Co-insurance is the specified percentage you will share with your health insurance provider to cover medical costs. Co-insurance can be tricky to understand, so let’s illustrate this with a story- Jeremy has horrible allergies and can only find relief in seeing a doctor regularly. He paid his deductible of $2,000, so now his insurance will cover 80% of the Doctor’s costs, and he will pay the remaining 20%.
And to finish it off, Co-pay is the dollar amount you pay out of pocket for Doctors visits and prescription drugs at the time of rendering. An example would be something like illness. You come down with a nasty cold, and you aren’t sure if it’s getting better or worse, so you head to your Doctor. To see him, your insurance requires you to pay a Co-pay of $15, and at your appointment, your doctor tells you you have a bad case of bronchitis and need a prescription, which has another Co-pay of $15. Because you have insurance, your total cost was only $30 when it could have been hundreds of dollars! Aren’t you glad you have insurance right now?
Speaking of Co-pays, there is a growing popularity with plans that offer deductible free office visits, meaning that you can visit your Doctor up to a certain amount of times per year with no Co-pay.
And, just like that, you now understand the basics of your health insurance plan. So, how exactly do all of those things work together, you might be wondering?
Think of your overall health plan like a ladder. For the sake of our story, let’s say you have a 90/10 insurance plan. Your deductible, co-insurance, and co-pay are only a tenth of the cost of your overall plan, meaning you only pay 10%, and your insurance provider pays the remaining 90%.
Now that you understand that let’s figure out what kind of health plan you have.
The common health plans available are 90/10, 80/20, 70/30, and 60/40- the first number being what your insurance will cover, the second being what you’ll be responsible for paying. And, the bigger the first number, the higher the Premium or price of your insurance, but the better the coverage. As you can probably infer by now, if the cost or Premium is lower for you, you won’t enjoy the luxury of the better benefits from the much more expensive plan or the 90/10.
How does it feel to better understand your overall health plan? Well, not only are we here to help you understand all the important terms of insurance, we want to help you get that 90/10 plan and only pay the cost associated with the 60/40 plan.
Yes, you heard that right.
We want to save you a lot of money right now! And, now that you know about your deductibles, co-pays, and co-insurance, we can explain to you the difference between what you’re paying now versus what you could be paying for a much better plan, all while paying less, most of the time 30-50% less!
Call us for a free consultation- yes, it’s really free!
