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Health Insurance Guide
Do Not Confuse Health Insurance With Life Insurance
Health insurance is designed to protect you against the possibility of having to pay large medical bills by offering either full or partial coverage for a range of medical treatments and procedures. By contrast, life insurance is designed to pay out a lump sum in the event of your death. It is very important not to confuse the two since it is very easy to get free health and life insurance quotes online today and you certainly do not want to end up with wrong sort of plan!
Life insurance is usually purchased as either a whole life policy or a term life policy. A term life insurance policy is the simplest form of life insurance plan and is also the least expensive as it pays out only on the death of the policyholder within a specified time. Term life insurance can normally be purchased for as little as one year or for as long as 30 years. Generally, individuals take out term life insurance towards the later years of their life or when they feel that their life is at greater risk over a short period of time for some specific reason.
Whole life insurance plans combine both a term life insurance plan and an investment plan. The premiums paid into a whole life insurance policy are split between the two, with that portion of the premium which is assigned for investment being paid into an investment vehicle, such as a mutual fund or stocks and bonds, chosen by the plan holder. Most people choose a whole life insurance plan to provide both protection for their family and also as a savings vehicle, often for retirement. As these policies are usually heavily loaded with both fees and commissions however they are not always a very suitable form of investment once costs are taken into account.
Despite the fact that the price of both a life insurance plan and a health insurance plan are dependent upon the plan holder's age and state to health, with younger people paying less than older people and those in good health paying less than those in poor health, these two types of insurance are very different animals.
Despite some common misconceptions, it really is not be a case of choosing between one and the other. Both have their place and for many people it is advisable to have both. Health insurance coverage is frequently provided by an employer and many employers will also offer the option of purchasing life insurance through a company scheme. In this situation, it is often wise to take the company up on the offer of both.
If it does come down to a question of choosing between the two, then this should be a matter of looking at your personal circumstances and how much you can afford to pay. If you can only afford one then, on balance, it is often to your advantage to choose health insurance rather than life insurance because it only takes one illness or accident to leave you facing a medical bill which you simply cannot pay without insurance.
Finally, if you do find yourself facing considerable medical bills without health insurance to cover them then one thing that you may consider is purchasing a term life insurance plan with a payout that is high enough to clear the bills. This will not help to clear your medical bills in the short term, but it will spare your family the worry of inheriting a considerable debt in the event of your death.
Administrative services only (ASO) contract: The contract between an employer and a third party administrator.
Joint venture: A type of partial structural integration in which one or more separate organizations combine resources to achieve a stated objective. The participating companies share ownership of the venture and responsibility for its operations, but usually maintain separate ownership and control over their operations outside of the joint venture.
Prepaid group practices: Term originally used to describe health care systems that later became known as health maintenance organizations.
Structure measures: health care quality indicators related to the nature and quality of the resources that a managed care organization has available for patient care.
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