Child Care Insurance

Good health is imperative for a child’s growth and development. Children need to make multiple trips to the doctor throughout the younger stages of infancy, and continue to visit the doctor, dentist and other health professionals as they grow older.

Making sure your child is covered under a child health insurance plan is essential for growing up healthy and happy. All parents want the best for their children, but when going through all the different kinds of child health insurance there are many questions parents need to ask. What are the costs associated with the different types of child health insurance plans? Should my child be covered under my own health insurance plan? Does the government offer any child health insurance programs? How do I cover my child without going over my family budget?

Types of Child Health Insurance

There are multiple types of child health insurance plans. There are individual plans, state and federal plans, or group plans (bringing them onto your family health insurance plan). An individual child health insurance plan usually takes the form of Preferred Provider Organization Plans (PPOs) or Health Maintenance Organization Plans (HMOs).

PPOs: These plans offer a network of doctors, hospitals and other care providers at a discounted rate. You can also use doctors outside of the “network”, but you will not get the discount and you will most likely not receive the same amount of coverage.
HMOs: These plans offer similar coverage than that of a PPO, but generally with more restrictions on out of network coverage and a smaller price on your out-of-pocket expenses. With an HMO you will not receive any coverage on doctors not in the network and need prior approval from your primary health care provider before any specialist care can happen. The other side of the coin is that HMOs provide lower rates and are extremely comprehensive.

If, however, you have more than one child, or need to cover yourself as well as your child, an individual health plan might not be the best option for you. Creating a family health insurance plan for you and your children can be both affordable and the easiest option when trying to find coverage for multiple people. To learn more about family insurance, check out our Family Health Insurance section.

State and Federally Run Child Health Insurance Providers

Child care coverage can differ from state to state. There are different state departments that offer similar kinds of child health insurance benefits. To learn what your state can offer your child, go to your state health department’s website.

There are also federally run child health insurance providers; the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services instituted the Children’s Health Insurance Program, or CHIP, in early 2009 under the direction of President Obama. Within broad Federal guidelines, each State determines the design of its program, eligibility groups, benefit packages, payment levels for coverage, and administrative and operating procedures to cover over 5 million uninsured children.