Think of your policy of Health insurance as a legal, binding contract between the insurance company and you, now will you read it....

With health insurance, you pay a deductible plus co-insurance (as an example, you the policy holder pay 20% after a $1000 deductible. Usually there’s a maximum out-of-pocket payment per year, and there is often a lifetime cap.

drug plans for Prescription medications are considered a form of insurance offered through many different benefit plans, where you pay a copay and the insurance pays the rest of the cost of you medications.

Health insurance companies also often have a network of providers who agree to accept the reasonable and customary fee and waive the remainder. It will generally cost the patient less to use an in-network provider.

Inherent problems with private insurance

Any private insurance system will face two inherent challenges: adverse selection and ex-post moral hazard....

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Other factors affecting insurance price

Because of advances in medicine and medical technology, medical treatment is more expensive, and people in developed countries are living longer. The population of those countries is aging, and a larger group of senior citizens requires more medical care than a young healthier population. (A similar rise in costs is evident in Social Security in the United States.) These factors cause an increase in the price of health insurance.

Some other factors that cause an increase in health insurance prices are health related: insufficient exercise; unhealthy food choices; a shortage of doctors in impoverished or rural areas; excessive alcohol use, smoking, street drugs, obesity, among some parts of the population; and the modern sedentary lifestyle of the middle classes.

In theory, people could lower health insurance prices by doing the opposite of the above; that is, by exercising, eating healthy food, avoiding addictive substances, etc. Healthier lifestyles protect the body from some, although not all, diseases, and with fewer diseases, the expenses borne by insurance companies would likely drop. A program for addressing increasing premiums, dubbed "consumer driven health care," encourages Americans to buy high-deductible, lower-premium insurance plans in exchange for tax benefits.

Anyone got a gripe about your private insurance? Well then…get in line here…

Some common complaints about private health insurance include:

1. Insurance companies do not announce their health insurance premiums more than a year in advance. This means that, if one becomes ill, he or she may find that their premiums have greatly increased. (Check your local state laws).

2. If insurance companies try to charge different people different amounts based on their own personal health, people may feel they are unfairly treated.

3. When a claim is made to the company, typically for a large dollar figure, folks feel the insurance company is using massive paperwork, bs, poor communication and bureaucracy to evade payment of their claim. At the very least it been said the insurance companies know all too well the dear cost of money so they take advantage of the consumer by, delaying payments.

4. Health insurance is often only widely available at a fair cost through an employer-sponsored group insurance program.

5. In the United States, there are tax advantages to Employer-provided health insurance, whereas individuals must pay tax on income used to fund their own health insurance.

6. Experimental treatments are often not allowed by the insurance company. This practice is especially criticized by those who have already tried, and not benefited from, all "standard" medical treatments for their condition.

7. The Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) type of health insurance plan has been criticized for excessive cost-cutting policies in its attempt to offer lower premiums to consumers.

8. As the health care recipient is not directly involved in payment of health care services and products, they are less likely to analyze or negotiate the costs of the health care received. The health care company has popular and unpopular ways of controlling this market force.

9. Some health care providers end up with different sets of rates for the same procedure. One for people with insurance and another for those without.

10. Unlike most public health insurance, many private insurance policies do not provide coverage of dental health care, or only offer such coverage with huge premiums.

11. Insurance Companies can influence the type or amount of treatment that the insured receives by setting limits on the number of visits, types of treatment, etc., it will cover.

Main article: Publicly funded health care

With publicly funded health insurance the good and the bad risks all receive coverage without regard to their health status, which eliminates the problem of adverse selection and amplifies the problem of moral hazard.

National Health Service in the UK

The National Health Service (NHS) is the "public face" of the four publicly funded health care systems of the United Kingdom. These groups provide he most of healthcare in the UK, from general practitioners to Accident and Emergency Departments, long-term healthcare and dentistry.

Health insurance in the US of A

According to the latest United States Census Bureau figures, approximately 85% of Americans have health insurance. Well over half get health insurance through their place of employment or as individuals, and various government agencies provide health insurance to over 29% of Americans. In 2005, there were 41.2 million people in the U.S. (14.2 percent of the population) who were without healthcare insurance for at least part of that year.

For many people, it’s not just about affordability. young and healthy individuals with low risk frequently don't believe that health insurance is worth it. Get this, about one-third of these 41.2 million live in households with an income over $50,000, with half of these having an income of over $75,000. , Get this, one third of these 41.2 million are eligible for public health insurance programs but do not sign up for them. Folks living in the South or West of the USA tend to not get insurance.

Medicare

In the United States, Medicare programs help to insure the elderly.

Confusing and perhaps a breakthrough in 2006, Medicare Part D started providing provides the elderly with and affordable insurance for the purchase of prescription drugs.

Medicaid

While Medicaid was instituted for poor folks, starting in ‘72, the number of people in the US who lacked any form of health insurance for any period during the year increased each year, for most years. It’s been said the number of doctors accepting Medicaid has decreased in recent years due to poor treatment of those docs.

get more information on:

http://www.wellness-insurance.com