What to Look for in a Family Health Insurance Policy

Choosing a health-care plan is critically important to the health of you and your family. Once you choose a plan, that choice is usually locked in for the entire year, and if you choose poorly you could end up with high out-of-pocket costs and substandard care. Taking the time to assess what is important to you and your family can make it easier to find the right health-care coverage.

Preventative Care

• Preventative care, like annual checkups and recommended immunizations, is essential for your family. When shopping for health-insurance coverage, you should check the coverage for these important preventative care procedures. Look at the coverage schedule for adult screenings as well, including annual mammograms and prostate exams and other recommended cancer screenings. Many health insurers cover preventative care without a deductible because they know that catching a problem early often means less costly and less invasive treatment options.

Access to Specialists

• The ability to see a specialist can be very important, especially if someone in your family has a chronic medical condition that requires specialized care. Some health-care plans require patients to obtain a referral from their primary care physician before seeing a specialist, while others allow patients to see any specialist in the network without a referral. If specialist access is important to you and your family, you might want to choose a plan that does not require a referral to visit a specialist.

Large Provider Network

• If you want to keep your current doctor, you need to make sure that the physician is part of the network of providers before you change plans. Many health insurers publish their entire provider network on their websites, making it easier to check your current physician's status before you switch plans. It is also important to look at the network status of the hospital nearest your home, as well as any preferred hospitals in your area. Going out of network could be costly, since insurers typically pay much less for non-network providers.

Affordable Premiums

• All the coverage in the world is useless if you cannot afford the premiums for your family health-care plan. If you are buying health-care coverage on your own, working through a licensed broker can help you save money and get the coverage you need at a price you can afford. A good place to start is the National Association of Health Underwriters. Just enter your zip code to see a list of the licensed health-insurance brokers in your area.

Prescription Coverage

• Check the coverage for any prescriptions you and your family members take before choosing a health-care plan. Prescription drug costs can be very high, and if the drugs you use are not covered you could be left with hundreds, or thousands, of dollars in unpaid medical expenses. Check the tier status of each drug on your list, since many health insurers use a tiered structure to determine the level of your co-payment and deductible. Compare the out-of-pocket costs for your medications and use that information to choose the right health-care plan.