Making Sense of Health Insurance

for more than 200 million Americans who have employer-based health insurance or buy their coverage through the federal marketplace it's time to pick your plan for next year but what type of insurance should you choose during open enrollment and how can you save money you know who's here our senior personal finance correspondent Sharon Epperson joins us with some answers it's always great to see you Sharon need to be here soon all right so I was looking through some of this it literally is an alphabet soup there's a PPO and HMO and one I had

never heard of an HDHP so what do people have to know about all these plans well the first thing that you have to know is know when the open enrollment starts November 1st for the federal marketplace and for many companies the beginning of November as well then know what they stand for HMO is a health maintenance organization know that that is something that's going to you'll pay less probably out-of-pocket but you have to stay in that network and so that's more constricting the PPO which many employers offer and many people get in their employer plan will have a higher deductible higher premium but more

flexibility you may not have to declare a primary care physician my health a high deductible health plan is increasingly in increasing in popularity and that is key if you can afford to play that high deductible and also if you want a health savings account attached to it okay so now that we know what all of those things stand for what's the first step in open enrollment in approaching it well the first step in improving is kind of understanding what health insurance needs are and what health insurance is and unfortunately many people don't know that a new report

just out from policy genius which is an online insurance marketplace found that one in four people avoided care or treatment because they were unsure of their coverage many of these people already helped that have health insurance but they're still not sure what its covering 29% only that number was able to correctly identify what a premium is what a deductible is what a copay is these are the key expenses that are involved with your health insurance and you need to know what they are and what you're paying for all right we went over some of the plans you mentioned a health savings account and what's what's

the difference between a health savings account and what's called an FSA these are two ways that you can save money for your health care expenses and it's important to know that with that health savings account you and must be enrolled in a high deductible health plan to do to do it also know that any money that you put into that will roll over a year to year so it can be an investment opportunity you can invest that money it's portable it is yours the difference between that and a flexible spending account a flexible spending account is only really offered through your employer so if you're getting coverage through the

individual marketplace you can't get an FSA the other thing to keep in mind is that it's not portable it's not an investment option for that one and if you don't use it that particular year or by the grace period you're gonna lose that money sounds good that's important to know all right when open enrollment comes you're sitting at my desk we're going through it together thank you sir review it you just got to review it absolutely Sharon Epperson