Insurance Basics: Home

Choosing a Health Plan

Your employer may offer more than one health plan, or you may be shopping for your own individual plan.

Choosing a Health Plan
Cost Sharing

Health insurance protects you from paying the full cost of your care. But, you will likely still have to pay some money out of your pocket. Almost all plans call for “cost sharing”. That means your insurer pays for part of your care, and you pay for part.

Cost Sharing
Vision Coverage for Children and Adults

Most health plans cover medically necessary visits to an eye doctor. Sometimes they cover routine eye exams too, but to get complete vision coverage you may have to go to other sources. This article will tell you about those sources.

Provider Networks

Your plan may contract with doctors, dentists and other healthcare practitioners; hospitals; labs; radiology facilities; pharmacies and other types of providers. These are the providers in your “network”.

Using Health Insurance While Traveling

If you’re planning a trip, the last thing you may want to think of is healthcare. But accidents and illnesses can happen on the road as well as at home. Here are the basics on using health insurance while traveling.

Major Life Events and Planning for Health Insurance

Sometimes you know ahead of time that a major event will happen in your life. Examples might include getting married or divorced, changing jobs or having a baby. Other times, such as at a death, you may not have advance warning.