Health care plans and the corresponding insurance policies, especially in the US, are complex. Let us start with first simply listing them.

 

The main types of health insurance plans are:

 

Individual Health Insurance Plans

Indemnity or Fee for Service Plans

Medigap

 

Group Health Insurance Plans

HMO

PPO

PoS

CDHP and HAS

 

Government health insurance

Medicare

Medicaid

 

 

The individual health insurance plans are bought by an individual for self and/or for the family directly from the insurance company. Indemnity plans are also called fee for service plans or reimbursement plans, as the indemnity plans are designed to reimburse your medical expenses up to a certain limit. A few years ago, indemnity health insurance plans were common where people used traditional insurances to pay for their health care expenses. These days most of the people use the managed health care plans. A common type of indemnity plan used these days is the one bought by visitors to the United States who are in the country for a small period of time.

 

Medigap is a private health insurance plan that is optionally bought normally by senior citizens who are under Medicare. Medigap helps to cover drugs and procedures that Medicare does not, thereby allowing the senior citizens to bridge the gap and make their overall health insurance plans complete.

 

The group health insurance is bought directly from the insurance company by an employer or a group thereby called the group health insurance plan.

 

The health insurance plans offered by the employers are the group health insurance plans that are also called network based plans or managed care plans.

 

Managed care plans are normally offered by the employer as part of the employment benefits. These are the main types of managed care plans:

Health Maintenance Organization (HMO)

Preferred Provider Organization (PPO)

Point of Service (PoS)

Consumer Directed Health Plans (CDHP)

 

Government Health Insurance

 

Believe it or not, there are government run health insurance plans available today in the United States. The two main government health insurance plan as until the end of 2009 are Medicare and Medicaid.


Medicare is the Federal health insurance program for Americans age 65 and older, some disabled Americans, and individuals who have end-stage renal disease (ESRD). The Original Medicare Plan, which is available nationwide, is a fee-for-service plan that is managed by the Federal Government. It pays for many health care services and supplies, but it won't pay all of your health care costs.

Medicare has four parts:

Part A is the hospital insurance plan to cover hospital expenses,

Part B medical insurance, which provides payments for doctors and related services;

Part D is prescription drug coverage.

Part C gives you the choice of receiving the benefits of Medicare A, B, and D through a private health plan, like an HMO or PPO. This coverage is called Medicare Advantage.