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Insurer Company Ratings
Each health insurance company on this site is one we trust to be well managed, financially stable, and deal honestly with insureds.
Most of these insurers are rated at least "A-" or better by A M Best. No health insurance company rated less than "B" is included unless there is a special reason. However, some health insurance companies e.g., prepaid plans, are not rated. Having the highest financial rating does not indicate that the insurer necessarily is the best health insurance company to buy from, but any rating less than "B" may have significant risk.
A permanent plan with less than a lifetime maximum coverage of $2 million is now unusual. Two million is considered to be the minimum to qualify as sufficient for "catastrophic" coverage. Because an individual will likely have only one catastrophic medical expense, the aggregate maximum for any one sickness or injury should not be less than the lifetime maximum. A maximum of less than $2 million for lifetime or for any one sickness or injury should be avoided unless that's all the personal budget can afford for affordable health insurance.
Glossary
Terms like deductible, coinsurance, copay, etc., are explained in the Health Insurance Glossary.
Comparing Health Insurance
Some people compare only the deductibles and make a decision primarily on that basis. Unfortunately for that simple strategy, coinsurance can become a much bigger figure than the deductible. There can also be significant omissions, limitations, and exclusions which a prudent buyer should be aware of.
The variation in plan designs can be confusing and sometimes makes a lesser value seem like a better value. In addition, some insurers' practices cause the renewal premiums of their plans to increase more than other health insurers' plans. These adverse practices are usually never mentioned in any brochure so many buyers are unable to take them into account when applying for coverage.
On this site, we try to give you all the information you need about a company and its plans so as to get the coverage most suitable for your situation. However, insurers not only control their own premium quotes, but can also forbid certain information from being published or displayed on the internet by those who sell their plans. In some cases there may be information on an insurer that you can get only by calling us because it does not appear anywhere on the web.
Limitations and Exclusions
Generally, the design concept of most plans is to be comprehensive in nature for what is medically necessary with clearly stated limitations and exclusions. That reduces the likelihood that you will be unaware of medically necessary items that are not covered and so cause unpleasant surprises when claims are made against affordable health insurance. Such shocks are more likely to happen with a scheduled type of coverage that specifies specific procedures only as being covered, such as the scheduled coverage sold through the auspices of a well known association for persons 55 years of age and older.
A Tax Break for Affordable Coverage
To make health insurance more accessible, effective January 1, 2004, Congress authorized eligibility for a unique tax-favored health savings account if you purchase a plan that has the necessary features as specified in the Internal Revenue Code
(a qualifying "high deductible health plan" or "HSA Plan"). It is an attempt to help make coverage for individuals, families, and employer groups cost less by encouraging them to select more out-of-pocket exposure.
Because expenses for natural medicine or alternative medicine may be able to be paid for out of a health savings account, there may be some advantage to having a qualifying plan for someone who is interested in those therapies.
Besides quotes and descriptions of HSA qualifying plans (i.e., you need the right category of plan to be eligible for the tax deduction), there is information on the banks and financial institutions that provide health savings accounts.
