The best healthcare policy for your neighbor may be a lousy one for you. Health insurance rates are based on several factors including age, gender, location and health care history. This can mean that you will pay a very different rate for the same contract that your neighbor bought.



When selecting a healthcare policy, there are several concerns that you should take into consideration when you are looking for the best accident and sickness insurance for yourself. One is the benefits, another is the participating providers and a third is the cost.

It is important to know what coverage your contract excludes. You should be able to find a brochure or outline of coverage that will tell you what procedures, labs and medical services are covered and what isn't. You should also know what your maximum out of pocket and the amount of other cost shares would be for the different insurance policies you are considering.

You should be able to find a section in the policy or the literature that describes it called "limitations and exclusions" or something similar. This is an important section to review. You will want to know what isn't covered before you buy.

The network list of providers each policy comes with is another important factor to consider. Ideally you will be able to keep your own doctor. If you can't do that with one insurance policy, you may want to consider another contract that includes him or her in their network. As a minimum you will want to make sure that there are other doctors in the list of doctors that participate that are convenient to you. You will also want to make sure that a convenient hospital is in the list of hospitals that participate as well. If your job is a distance from your home, you may also want to check the network in that vicinity. The same logic applies to checking the network list of providers near your school or college.

The cost of your insurance policy is important, but only when you compare it with the benefits. A medical insurance policy that costs one dollar a year but that has a $100,000 deductible might not be a good deal. It is also true that a plan that cost $100,000 a year with no deductible probably isn't a good deal either.

One has to weigh the benefits of a lower premium with the lower benefits that usually come with that lower premium. You shouldn't rule out a policy just because it has a moderate deductible, often the lower cost makes it a good deal.

One way to see which plan is best is to figure out what your total costs would be in two or three scenarios. You might create a catastrophic scenario where you have $200,000 of expenses in the same year. Determine how much you would pay to meet your deductible, how much you would pay in co-pays and other cost shares in your scenario, then add these figures along with the insurance policy's annual premium to estimate your total costs in this scenario. Do the same for the plans you are considering and then create one or two other scenarios with more moderate medical costs.

This takes some work, but it is one of the best ways to determine which plan would be best for yourself and your family.

Determining which health insurance policy is best for yourself and your family can take some thought and some math, but making the right decision is important. Having the right health cover when a calamity strikes can make a world of difference to both your health and your ability to avoid a personal financial disaster.