Insurance Basics: Home
By law, consumers living in New York State have certain protections when shopping for and using their health insurance. Your insurer must provide up-to-date information about who is in your network.
Healthcare proxies and advance healthcare directives can help you plan your care if you ever lose the ability to communicate clearly.
Suppose your insurer won´t pay for a healthcare service, or pays less than you had expected. You have the right to “appeal”, or ask for your case to be formally reconsidered.
To look up the estimated costs for behavioral health services (including mental health and alcohol and/or drug services), go to our home page, fairhealthconsumer.org, and click on Medical and Hospital Costs.
Most health plans have a “network”, a group of doctors, hospitals and other healthcare providers who agree to take your insurer´s rate.
Health insurance is important. It protects you against what can be the very high costs of healthcare. But, to get health insurance, you need to enroll, or sign up. And, in most cases, you can’t enroll in a health plan any time you want. You have to do it during certain times.
