Understanding Health Insurance

[Music] meet Rob a patient at northwell health Rob struggles to understand his health insurance and it really frustrates him he's never confident that he's picked the right plan and never knows how much his treatment will cost in fact no one ever told him what his options were oh no thanks Rob but that was before now someone finally took the time to explain it all to Rob and he wants to share the information with you so let's start with the basics what is health insurance health insurance is an arrangement with an

insurance company that can help you afford the costs of health care health insurance works by spreading the cost of care among large groups of people so insurance paid by one person helps pay for the care of the next in addition to spreading financial risk health insurance has another important function it improves access to care meaning more people can seek buy and pay for health care services there are a few ways to get health insurance first there is group health insurance otherwise known as employer based coverage this type of insurance offers discounted coverage for a large pool of

mostly healthy people and the cost of premiums are split by the employer and employee another type of insurance is individual health insurance which covers a single person or family it's paid for entirely by the purchaser in this case premiums can vary based on the age of the purchaser and they typically offer fewer benefits than group insurance both group health insurance and individual health insurance are commonly referred to as commercial insurance plans but there are government sponsored health insurance plans as well like Medicare or Medicaid these plans are obtained through a

government agency or program and usually cater to those who have special circumstances like children the elderly veterans or active service members and those with low incomes in these plans costs are split between the government and the insured now that you know how to obtain insurance let's talk about what plans exist