What Is Health Insurance?
Health insurance is a type of insurance coverage that covers the cost of an insured individual's medical and surgical expenses. Depending on the type of health insurance coverage, either the insured pays costs out-of-pocket and is then reimbursed, or the insurer makes payments directly to the provider.
In health insurance terminology, the "provider" is a clinic, hospital, doctor, laboratory, health care practitioner, or pharmacy. The "insured" is the owner of the health insurance policy; the person with the health insurance coverage.
In countries without universal health care coverage, such as the USA, health insurance is commonly included in employer benefit packages and seen as an employment perk.
Premium:
Your premium is the amount you pay to the health insurance company each month to maintain your coverage. When trying to understand the cost of a health insurance plan, the premium is the first thing to consider. But make sure to balance it against other costs, such as copayments, deductibles and coinsurance. A good rule: choose a lower premium/higher deductible if you want to save money now, and a higher premium/lower deductible if you want to be more financially prepared for unexpected medical expenses later.
Health insurance protects you from high, unexpected costs
Did you know the average cost of a 3-day hospital stay is $30,000? Or that fixing a broken leg can cost up to $7500? Having health coverage can help protect you from high, unexpected costs like these.
Public (government) health insurance
for this type to be called insurance, premiums need to be collected, even though the coverage is provided by the state. Therefore, the National Health Service (NHS) in the United Kingdom is not a type of health insurance - even though it provides free medical services for its citizens, it does not collect premiums - it is a type of universal health coverage.
Examples of public health insurance in the USA is Medicare, which is a national federal social insurance program for people aged 65+ years as well as disabled people, and Medicaid which is funded jointly by the federal government and individual states (and run by individual states), SCHIP which is aimed at children and families who cannot afford private insurance, but to not qualify for Medicaid.
