Define Health Care Plans

Health care plans, also known as health insurance, are programs to which people pay premiums to protect against high health care expenses in the future. There are multiple types of health care plans, though a person will be limited by which plan their employer or the government offers.

Health Maintenance Organizations

• Health maintenance organizations (HMOs) allow you to choose a doctor from a list of "in-network" physicians and require you to go to that doctor in order to receive benefits. To see other medical personnel, the physician must refer you to another in-network provider or else you won't receive benefits.

Preferred Provider Organization

• A preferred provider organization (PPO) also provides a list of "in-network" medical providers, but still allows benefits when going out of the network. The bill for out-of-network providers will likely be more expensive than if you had chosen one from the network.

Point of Service

• Point-of-service (POS) health care plans are a hybrid of HMOs and PPOs. The primary care physicians will refer to other providers within the plan, but will pay a predetermined amount of the bill if you go out of network. These plans are typically more expensive.

Indemnity health care

• Traditional health insurance, or indemnity health care plans, often costs more than the previously mentioned managed care plans and requires you to satisfy a deductible before it starts paying out benefits. The plans allows freedom to choose any doctor you desire and see specialists without prior approval from the primary care physician.

Government Health Care

• The government offers two types of health care plans currently: Medicare and Medicaid. Medicare offers health insurance to those who have retired from the work force, regardless of their medical condition, while Medicaid is a health care program for those with low income.