How to choose your health care plan during open enrollment

open enrollment kind of know it's coming every year why is it so important it comes every year and a lot of people don't realize when that's coming don't know the date so the first thing that's important is to know the date so that you don't miss that deadline to make the change because often this is the only time for a full year you're going to get to change your health insurance benefits you want to make sure you understand what's being offered and this is the scary part according to a new report from policy genius a lot of people are avoiding care one in four people surveyed avoided care or treatment because they didn't know if their health

insurance would cover what they read to have done exactly and only 29% knew what some key terms meant premium how much it's coming out of your check every time you get paid deductible the amount that you have to pay overall before before they even pick up a dime and the copay which many people probably know is your office visit but some didn't all right let's talk about HSAs the health savings accounts versus FSA's what's the difference what are they well those are key ways to save money to pay for your health care expenses and they're great

accounts because they are both tax advantaged accounts you put in pre-tax money you can use them for things like doctor's visits prescriptions but there are some differences between the two the HSA the health savings account is something that you can only get if you're enrolled in a high deductible health plan and so you have to make sure that you're okay with having that money hat that you'll have to pay before health insurance kicks in you also have to understand that that money that you don't use for an HSA can be rolled over year to year and it also can be invested so this is why people like this account

because they can use it for things if for health care needs far beyond this next year but well into retirement even and it's portable so if you change jobs you can take that account with you the FSA s are different so the FSA ism is something that you your employer sets up if you're self-employed you really can't contribute to a flexible spending account and it is money that you set up for that year and you have till the end of the year or the end of the grace period to use it or you will lose it and that's a key part that people don't realize sometimes also if you change jobs or something that doesn't go with

you what's the difference between an HMO and a PPO what are they so the alphabet soup of plans also has people very confused the PPO the preferred provider organization that's the one that many people use in their employer-based pants plans it has a lot more flexibility it has higher premiums than an HMO but you usually don't have to designate a primary care physician before you go see the doctors that you want to see the HMO the health maintenance organization lower premiums but you're restricted to a network and has less flexibility so sometimes people don't like that but the one that's

really growing in popularity is this HDHP the high deductible health plans that's something to look out for to see if your company offers it so that possibly you can get that health savings account it's also offered through the federal marketplace so some people are doing it that way you you