If you’re like most Nevada residents, you recognize the importance of maintaining adequate health insurance. However, unless such coverage comes as an employment benefit, you’ll need to obtain it on your own. Although this is always essential for the self-employed or people whose employers do not offer a group health plan, individual health insurance also makes sense for Nevada residents whose current coverage:
- Offers no protection for a spouse or other dependent.
- Saddles them with excessively high premiums.
- Fails in some other essential way to meet their current needs.
Nevadans have three major types of individual health insurance policy from which to choose. These are the fee-for-service, HMO and preferred-provider plans, each of which differs from the others in significant ways.
Health Maintenance Organizations (HMO)
HMOs offer an affordable alternative to Nevada residents who don’t mind limiting their choice of doctor or hospital. Rather than let you make that decision on your own, most of these plans will simply assign you to one of their participating medical providers.
Health maintenance organization plans exist in three basic formats: group practice, individual practice and open-ended. While the group and individual practice plans do expect a copay for each procedure and doctor visit, the associated amount should remain the same regardless of the level of service provided. In addition, the HMO will never force you to pay the entire cost upfront and submit a claim form later.
With the open-ended or POS plans, things work somewhat differently. While these plans entitle you to traditional network benefits, they also allow you to seek out-of-network care.
Preferred Provider Organizations (PPO)
Although similar in many ways to HMOs, PPOs require you to pay for services only as you receive them. They also offer you a choice. While you can always obtain your medical care from one of their in-network providers, you can also visit a non-participating doctor and pay a greater out-of-pocket percentage of the cost.
Comparing Individual Health Insurance Plans
The choice of health plan will depend upon the features you feel to be most important. Nevada residents who wish to stay with their current doctors will probably have no interest in an HMO. Nevertheless, this type of policy can make good sense to those for whom the cost of health care outweighs all other concerns.
Let All Kinds of Insurance Help You Choose
Although individual health insurance options may seem overwhelming, the pros at All Kinds of Insurance can help. By combining a careful consideration of your needs with our detailed knowledge of what the various insurance companies currently offer, we can assist you in choosing the policy that works most effectively for you and your family.
Don’t leave your decision to chance, and above all, don’t delay in making it. Although you may be healthy today, you never really know what tomorrow may bring. To remain on the safe side, call us at 702-534-4697 or just schedule an appointment to speak with a representative. We will get an immediate start in helping you obtain the coverage that suits you best.