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insurance is simply protection of the person or group against financial loss from illness or injury. Can you live without it? Probably. If you? The answer depends on who you ask.

Like other forms of insurance, you do not need health insurance until you need it. Car insurance does not help, until you get into a car accident. Life insurance is not the value until you die. And health insurance does not do you any good until you need medical assistance. But if you believe in Murphy's Law - that whatever can go wrong will go wrong - then you should be health insurance.

Health insurance varies greatly between policies, but basically, it pays a negotiated percentage of the cost of a policy holder, the medical treatments.

3 types of health insurance

In the United States, there are 3 types of health insurance:

1. Self-Insured/Uninsured. People without insurance, and the people who have health insurance, but the responsibility for payment of 100% of insurance premium. This group will be 30% of the U.S. population.

Managed-care plans. They fall into 3 categories. All networks are essentially the services of certain suppliers on contract prices:

* Health Maintenance Organizations (HMO) plans in which members pay a fixed monthly fee, regardless of how much they need medical care in a given month. HMOs provide medical services, office visits, hospitalization and surgery, and usually require that you within the network, if you have services of doctors and hospitals.

* Preferred Provider Organizations (PPO) are groups of doctors and hospitals, medical benefits for members only. PPO members pay for the services of the rule, as they are, and the PPO sponsor reimbursed the cost of treatment. In most cases, the health and the PPO sponsor the award for each type of service in advance.

* Point-of-service (POS) are less common than the other 2nd Here you pay no deductible and usually only a small charge if you have a doctor in your network. You must also select a physician, primary health care for all references in the POS network. If you are outside the network for healthcare, you will be charges or deductions.

3. Indemnity plans, the participants, to obtain medical assistance whenever and wherever they need it. Participants may at any doctor or specialist, as often as necessary. There are no limitations when it comes to seeking medical help. This is by far the most expensive type of health insurance plan.

Which of these types of health insurance for you is best depends on your personal situation. The choice of a health insurance is a time consuming task, but an educated decision will ensure you have the right insurance, if the need arises. And as we age, which will inevitably arise.

Ron King is a full-time researcher, writer, and web developer. Visit healthinsuring for more information about this topic.

Copyright 2005 Ron King. This article can only be reprinted if the resource box remains intact.