There are an estimated 40 million people living in the United States who are without health insurance. A great percentage of them are immigrants who have recently arrived and are not familiar with the health care system or do not know how to go about obtaining insurance for themselves and their families. It is important to have health coverage because if you need emergency care you may wind up owing thousands of dollars.

Health Insurance is the most important kind of insurance you should consider. It will cover your medical expenses to a greater or lesser extent, depending on the kind of coverage you purchase.

Some plans may require you to pay part of the fees for office visits and/or medication. This is called a co-payment or coinsurance. A deductible, on the other hand, is a certain amount, which the patient is required to pay before the insurance takes over.

Exclusions are certain things the insurance company will not pay for, such as cosmetic surgery, contraception, etc.

There are different health care providers. Commercial insurance companies are one of the greatest insurance groups in America. These are private companies who basically provide protection for profit. There are also the Blue Cross/Blue Shield companies who are not for profit but who are also paid providers.

Large employers often offer insurance to their employees. They usually include the employee as well as their family. The employee pays a certain part of the premium and the company pays the rest. A federal law called COBRA covers you if you for up to 18 months if you leave your job. In that case you must pay the full amount of the premiums yourself. After that if you have still not found a job, or you have found one that does not offer insurance benefits, you might want to consider purchasing a private insurance.

Here are the different kinds of insurance. The Hospital/Medical Expense Insurance covers all expenses incurred during a hospital stay such as room, board, services and supplies that usually accompany hospitalization. It also covers physician/surgeon expenses.

The Medical Expense Insurance pays for your appointments with the doctor or the doctor’s visit to see you in the hospital.

The Hospital Indemnity Insurance is more limited. It pays a flat fee for each day hospitalized. Unfortunately often the expenses exceed that fixed amount. Some policies, for example, only pay if hospitalization is caused by an accident.

Surgical Expense Insurance covers surgical procedures but only for a fixed amount. For example, a gall bladder removal might be $1,100. The insurance company will therefore pay up to that amount, but no more.

Depending on the situation you might still end up owing a serious amount of money although you have an insurance policy. For that reason it is important that there is a stop loss clause in your coverage. That means that there is a limit on the amount of money you will have to pay for any one claim. The loss should be explicitly stated either on a per-claim or per-calendar-year basis.

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