When you are looking for a health insurance plan, it is important to know your requirements, your eligibility and the kind of cover that you can receive. If you are working for an organization, most of the times the employer provides with an insurance plan for you. This has been availed by your organization as a group insurance. However, if you do not have such a facility, you will have to go for an individual insurance plan.
Group Insurance plans
Insurance companies find it easier to provide group insurance plans. They are mostly offered to organizations as there are many employees to cover. While the companies receive premium from all employees they need to pay for the medical services only for a few, when required.
This is beneficial to the insurance companies and as a result the premiums that every employee needs to pay may be lesser than otherwise. It thus proves to be profitable to the insured to get a group insurance. The group insurance protection comes under Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) regulations. This act regulates the eligibility criteria, health status and preexisting conditions, waiting period, etc regarding the health insurance policy for the employees. It also controls the continuation of health insurance after losing job, etc for the benefit of the employees.
Individual insurance plans
When you are not working for an organization or sometimes when your organization does not support group insurance, you may have to opt for individual insurance plan. This may be expensive as this is like a specialized service. Medical examinations and health checks can be mandatory in order to apply for an individual plan. This may cause a problem in case there are some health concerns prevailing at the time of application. This may further add to the expenses as the premium or fees to be paid may be increased or occasionally the policy may not be approved owing to certain major illnesses.
