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Look for at least a $2 million dollar lifetime
maximum per person
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Look for a comprehensive plan which includes
in-patient as well as outpatient care,
therapies, prescriptions, doctors
visits, diagnostics, anesthesiologists fees, outpatient
surgery as well as
in patient, chiropractic care
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Look for a plan which does not require a waiting
period for several conditions...
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Look for a wide choice
of doctors and Hospitals and minimal additional costs if you want
to go
outside the network
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Look for a plan which
covers prescriptions and doesn't just offer a discount
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Look for portability.
If you travel or move outside the state make sure your plan will cover
you.
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Look for plans that
limit the number of deductibles and coinsurance a family must pay
and will
specify a particular amount amount of out of pocket costs you could be responsible
for so you won't have any unpleasant surprises down the road.
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Look for annual
calendar year deductibles and coinsurance as opposed to one for
each occurance/ illness
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Look for a reasonable
pre-existing condition limitation
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Look for optional
maternity coverage in individual/family plans
if you aren't planning a family. Better plans will cover maternity if there
are complications
even if normal childbirth is not covered. Sometimes, even
if you are planning a family,
these plans are a more cost effective way to
go as the savings you will realize in just a
ew years is enough to cover
the cost of a normal child birth usually.
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Watch out for plans that make you satisfy more
than one deductible per year per person
such as plans that have a separate deductible
for Out-patient treatment, one for Inpatient
treatment and one
for prescriptions.
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Watch out for a teaser lifetime maximum with a much
lower maximum such as $500,000 or
just one million dollars for each illness. Just be aware
that if you get sick you won't have
the whole 10 million to use unless you
come down with 10 or 20 different major diseases and
what is the likelihood
of that happening?
-
Watch out for unlimited lifetime maximums. There is
no such thing as unlimited. You need
to question the company with different
scenarios. A good way to see how well the plan will
really cover you is to
as what your responsibility will be if you need to go outside the
network
(if there is one) and you also need to go out of state and the bill
comes to $100,000. If they
say you'd be responsible for 20%, make sure you
are comfortable with this potential risk.
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Watch out for lots of
bells and whistles like low co-pays and seemingly little out of pocket
costs.
Make sure you ask how well you would be covered in a worst case scenario if
you
had to go out of state and out of network with these plans. Often there
is a substantial out
of pocket responsibility YOU WILL BE RESPONSIBLE FOR.
Make sure you know about it
and are prepared for it.
