What is the difference between a premium, a co-pay and and out-of-pocket expense?

Health Insurance Plan costs can be broken into two categories: cost of having the plan and costs of using the plan. In order to purchase and continue to have health insurance coverage, you have to pay a premium. The premium is paid on a regular basis such as a certain amount monthly, quarterly or yearly. It is typical that when purchased through your employer, the plan premium is deducted from each paycheck. Basically, the premium buys you the health …

What do EPO, PPO and POS mean?

In the world of health insurance, there are separate and distinct types of insurance plans. In general, the three types of plans are Exclusive Provider (EPO) network, Preferred Provider (PPO) network, and Point of Service (POS) network. These plans differ by cost and types of coverage provided.

The Exclusive Provider network or EPO is a managed care plan where services are covered only if you go to doctors, specialists, or hospitals in the plan’s network (except in an emergency). This …

Are all hospitals supposed to accept any or all insurance?

In the past, each hospital has been able to select which insurance plans it will accept. This could mean that if you got sick or injured while traveling, for example, and you had to visit an emergency room that you may have had to pay entirely out of pocket for care provided at that distant hospital if they “didn’t take your insurance.”

This will no longer happen to a large degree. All Marketplace plans will offer the same set of …

How do I take on a new cost for health insurance when I can barely pay my bills now?

A spending plan is just exactly that, a plan for how you will spend all the dollars your earn and those given to you (including, hopefully, directing some to savings). To make a change in your spending plan such as adding in health insurance costs or taking on a new car payment, it helps to be as inclusive as possible when calculating all of your monthly expenses. In other words, don’t write in only the premium cost, but include some …