Ok I'm leaving my parents coverage in a few months and am scouting health insurance companies....thing is...I have no clue what they are talking about!!! The thing I am most confused about is the deductible...if a plan has a $1000 deductible does that mean for a normal doctors visit I first have to pay $1000? (ok please dont laugh at me, I have no clue) Or do I just pay a copay (it says $30 copay for doc visits) If I do just pay a copay then what is the $1000 for?? is that for hospital visits? Lol, I dont have $1000 bucks to go to the gyno! ;-) Somebody help me, I am going out of my mind!

To be sure you'll need to read the policy carefully. Generally the $1000 deductible is what you pay before the insurance kicks in. After that you'' need to make co-payments according to a percentage set by the insurance company. The "per-visit" $30 payment may or may not be a true "copay". That's why you need to examine the policy. It's a good idea to do the math before you commit. If your premium is $600 per month and you have a $2000 deductible for example, you'll need to shell out $9,200 each year before the insurance company pays a dime. Then you start your co-pay. Then, depending on your claim, they will deny coverage for being "experimental" or unnecessary or excluded due to a pre-existing condition even you didn't know about. If you have too many claims they'll cancel your coverage. If your coverage lapses, they'll find a reason to refuse further coverage by claiming you're too fat, or too thin, or had an unreported yeast infection 12 years ago. Europeans and Canadians do not have these problems. They also have much better health care systems than the US since you don't need to fret about deductibles and copays. Good luck!

OK Health Ins 101

There are different types of plans:

HMO: You pay a copay only, but you must see a network provider and sometimes need a prior authorization to see a specialist even if they are in the network

Indemnity: you have a deductible and coinsurance. A typical plan might have a $1000 deductible and 20% coinsurance. This means you pay the first $1000 for your healthcare per year. This is not aid all at once, but you pay for doctors visits, tests, drugs, etc. until you spend $1000. Then they will pay 80% of what they consider usual and customary charges for the rest of the year. So, assuming you have met your deductible and need to see a doctor and he charges $200 for the visit, but the insurance company thinks $100 is the U&C, they will pay $80. You are then responsible for the $20 coinsurance and the $100 they disregard.

Then there is PPO. This works the same as the indemnity plan, except if you go to a network provider you are only responsible for the coinsurance after the deductible.

Some plans offer you both types. You pay a copay if you stay in network and if you go out of network it is one of the other scenarios.

If I haven't completely confused you, my suggestion is, if the HMO includes most of your doctors, or doctors you would be comfortable seeing go that route.