Don’t understand some of those tricky words and terms your health insurance company uses? Here are some quick definitions and explanations to help you better understand your health insurance and get the most out of your plan.
A deductible is the portion of medical costs that the insured person is responsible for paying before the insurance coverage starts covering you. In many circumstances, the insured person will have to come up with the amount for the deductible before a claim gets paid. For example, if a person has a $3,000 yearly deductible, but accumulates a total of $13,000 in healthcare costs over the course of a year, they are only responsible for paying $3,000 of the total charges.
However, many insurance policies will cover certain preventative care services, such as annual checkups at no cost before a deductible is met. Once a member has paid their deductible in full, they will only have to pay a co-payment/coinsurance for the rest of their covered services for the year.
Usually the higher a deductible is, the lower the monthly health insurance payment will be. Most companies require a minimum deductible. Certain policies and plans will have separate deductibles for different services and individuals that are covered on a family plan.
