Group Health vs. Individual Health

Group health insurance plans are very popular with employers and of course employees over the high cost and limited coverage of individual health plans. There are a number of health care plans that have become very popular over the past few years.

1.    Health Savings Account or HSA

2.    Cafeteria Health Savings Plans

3.    Point of Sale Health Care Service

4.    Preferred Provider Organization or PPO

5.    Health Maintenance Organization or HMO

These insurance health care plans have become very popular with employers and employees alike. Compared to the Individual health insurance, which is very expensive the group health insurance plans are growing in popularity. Unfortunately, not everyone can enroll in a group insurance plan and that makes it very difficult.

Individual health insurance is very expensive even for the healthiest of individuals. The one main reason for this is an on going one that the insurance provider is unable to compare notes with other insured’s history and health background. This in itself is what causes the cost of health care insurance policies for individuals to be very expensive with minimal medical coverage.

This leaves both the health insurer and the insured in a bit of a quandary. When an individual enrolls in a group insurance plan, usually through an employer, they will be surprised at how much lower the average monthly cost for health insurance becomes. This in part is because the employer has contracted with a particular health insurance company and the insurance company has a scale of sorts to compare with and come up with a logical premium payment.

There is also the Health Savings Account, which operates on a different scale than the other managed health care insurance like the Health Maintenance Organization, the Preferred Provider Organization, and the Point of Sale. The Health Savings Account requires an initial deposit of a few thousand dollars a year for a family health insurance policy.

The difference with the Health Savings Account is that the individual within the family will have more of a voice in what medical decisions are made and not made. Many individuals find this to be a very satisfactory health insurance plan to have to offer more freedom of choice and decision-making. A catastrophic insurance policy is wise to invest in along with the Health Savings Account to offer peace of mind with full coverage for almost any incident.

The Cafeteria Health Insurance Plans are rarely discussed and most individuals do not even understand what they are.  This is just another way for the insurance provider to offer more of a choice of health care coverage in a menu type of setting which benefits the insurance provider and the insured.