Family Health Insurance
Having family health insurance is the most important types of family insurance you can give your family. Family health insurance not only covers doctor’s appointments, dentist calls, hospital stays and emergency room visits but covers all of these at a discounted rate that individuals would not be able to receive.
There are multiple ways in which family health insurance can be purchased. With the passing of the new healthcare laws, affordable family health insurance has been made possible for the less fortunate. Usually though, family health insurance is offered through the workplace of one of the adults from their family income. According to the CDC, 58% of Americans have private health insurance, meaning they have family health insurance from a private company, most usually their place of business. The most common thing to do if both parents career offers a family healthcare plan is to take the plan that has the best rates and covers the most. Also, look into which person’s healthcare company is more widely accepted in your area.
Unfortunately, because most children need semi-consistent doctor check-ups, affordable family health insurance quotes can be difficult to find. There are different types of family health insurance coverage that covers different aspects of coverage:
- Managed Care Plans – This is the most affordable form of family health insurance; it consists of a network of physicians, hospitals, specialists and clinic that provide the best care available for a low rate. These plans have copayments, coinsurance and generally affordable premiums. There are three kinds of managed care plans:
o Health Maintenance Organization (HMO)
o Preferred Provider Organization (PPO)
o Point-of-Service (POS)
- Fee-for-Service Coverage – In this family health insurance plan the parents select the hospital and physician they want to use and the insurance pays for either all or part of the cost. Most companies that offer family health insurance will use this option. This kind of package ensures immediate attention in case of emergency, as opposed to managed care plans that sometimes have waiting periods. However, if you are looking for coverage on just the basics, like regular check-ups, this might not be the best plan for your family budget.
- Preventive Care – This type of family health insurance is designed specifically for children and infants. This type of insurance is great for parents who are in good health but need help financing regular doctor visits. Preventive care covers children’s physicals, routine checkups, and booster shots.
Patient Protection and Affordable Bill Act – Obama’s healthcare plan
New bills made into laws always are difficult to understand, much less figure out how they can expressly affect the common family. When President Obama passed the Patient Protection and Affordable Bill Act it made it so every American was required to have medical insurance. Here are some of the other major points of the act that could affect family health insurance.
- Expanding Medicaid eligibility
- Subsidizing insurance premiums
- Providing incentives for businesses to provide health care benefits
- Prohibiting denial of coverage/claims based on pre-existing conditions
- Establishing health insurance exchanges
- Support for medical research
Some people were against these new health care initiatives because they thought it would deteriorate affordable family health insurance by raising taxes of everyday families. The cost of these programs comes from newly instated taxes on a range of medical companies/services, including fees on medical devices and pharmaceutical companies, Medicare taxes for high-income brackets, indoor tanning taxes and the taxes recovered from the penalty for individuals who do not participate in a health insurance plan.
Medicaid
Medicaid is a type of family health insurance that is funded jointly by the federal and state governments, but distributed on the state level. Medicaid covers family health insurance for low-income families with children.
