I know that choosing the best health insurance plan can be very confusing. After all, most of us are not benefit professionals, and we need to wade through a lot of details to get to that right plan. Our parent's generation probably had it a lot easier. For one thing, health care was not as expensive. For another thing, fewer options existed. They might have chosen a standard indemnity plan from a major company, or just been handed one from an employer. But now, we face higher costs and more choices, so we need to be more educated in order to choose a plan that fits our needs and budget!
PPO plans are still the most popular health plans on the market, especially the individual market. The main part of a PPO is a network of health professionals. The insurance company will offer the most coverage for services from those network medical providers. An insured person is still allowed to seek services outside the network, but will usually have to pay more for it.
PPO plans usually have a specified deductible and out of pocket maximum. That means that for covered services, the insured person must pay the first dollar amount up to the deductible. After the deductible, insurance will kick in for covered services at some specified percentage. Some services, like prescriptions and doctor's office visits may have different coverage, like smaller deductibles or an office visit copay.
PPO health plans suit many families. Most of the time, the network providers are fine, but they do allow access to out of network providers in case of rare situations. Also, emergency services are usually covered at the network rate, no matter where they are performed. And most PPO plans allow non network providers to be covered at the network rate if no network provider is available in the area. Make sure
