HMO's: A Simple Way Out of a Maze of Health Insurance Choices

Health Insurance Has a Bewildering Array of Products and Providers

The rapid advance of medical, pharmaceutical and diagnostic technologies has left a host of financial and human problems inadequately addressed. Regulators approve of new methods and medicine with increasing frequency and patents result in most of these advances being available at quantum jumps in cost to the Health benefit provider or the patient, if coverage is not possible. New disease detection methods involve genetics and bio-physics with the involvement of incredibly expensive reagentsand hardware.

The bludgeoning Healthcare cost to the economy has increasingly become a vital concern for all stakeholders. Health Insurance providers who work for profits have become increasingly wary of offering products with unlimited coverage. Lay people are left to decide on matters such as exclusions, co payments and lifetime limits that they do not understand in full.

Health Insurance coverage for children, the elderly and for women involves deep and extensive knowledge of a number of fields. Agents, doctors and other professionals who can apply relevant criteria to select a Health Insurance product that suits all members of a family are rare. Those who have a feel for the key nuances may not always represent the best interests of a potential client. It is entirely possible to pay an enormous premium for health services that are fortunately not required, but to be left without coverage for essential consultation, tests, hospitalization, surgery and medicines. Differences of opinion between doctors on new technology only confounds patients and makes decision-making ever more difficult.