Health Insurance in the U.S.: Health Insurance Essay

Health Insurance in the U.S.:

Health insurance has become an important part in the modern health care system even before the American government started to discuss the issue of compulsory medical insurance. Actually health insurance has asserted itself through the ever-increasing number of customers seeking for these services as well as through advertisements. The new customers tend to share information on the benefits of health insurance with their friends. This in turn results in the increase in the number of customers seeking for health insurance as the shared information continues to shape public opinion.

Types of Health Insurance in the U.S.:

The various types of health insurance available in the United States are classified into several categories. The three main types of these insurance plans are fee-for-service or indemnity plans, Health Maintenance Organizations, and Preferred Provider Organizations. In addition to being the traditional type of health insurance, the fee-for-service or indemnity plans permits access to any doctor and hospital throughout the country. This type of insurance requires insurance company to cater for part of the invoices from doctors and hospitals making it more expensive ("Types of Plans," n.d.). The Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) offer insurance through a network of doctors and hospitals in a specific geographic or service area. Since HMO coordinates the care received by the patient, it frees the patient from completing paperwork for covered services. On the other hand, the Preferred Provider Organization is a combination of the fee-for-service and HMO plans since it contains a network of doctors though the insured is not restricted to the network doctors and can see a physician of his/her choice.Methods for Categorizing Health Insurance:

There are three methods for categorizing health insurance in the United States i.e. individual, group, and state-sponsored health insurance. The individual health insurance is one with which the insured or policyholder caters for all premium payments as it covers the policyholder and his/her spouse and dependents. On the contrary, the group health insurance policies involve other people in coverage of the care services such as the employee-sponsored or association-sponsored health insurance plans. The state-sponsored category includes insurance programs provided by the government to low-income individuals and families, the unemployed, and people who don't benefit from a group plan. While this is the most valuable health insurance category because it's normally the cheapest option, its requirements vary across states. Medicare and Medicaid are the two most common types of state-sponsored health insurance programs (Ahmad, n.d.).

Managed Care Plans:

Managed care plans are health care policies made up of working arrangements by hospitals, physicians, and care providers to provide coverage for care services to their members at discounted costs. As the most common category of health insurance, managed care plans have developed to become renowned for providing excellent care services at discounted costs. The other main advantage of these care plans is that they consist of less paperwork to deal with as technological advances have automated basic tasks, which is very convenient and save time.

There are primarily three types of managed care health….....