types of insurance Flashcards
the tendency of those who experience greater health risks to apply for and continue their coverage under any given health insurance plan. When adverse selection increases, health insurance companies experience greater expenses and may raise rates.
Adverse risk selection
Individual accounts that may be set up by self-employed individuals and those who work for small companies. Funds in the accounts are used to pay medical expenses.
Archer Medical Savings Accounts
(“risk selection”) recruiting only healthier-than-average individuals so the insurer can make greater profits (one reason it can be very hard for individuals who need costly health care to get or keep insurance). One strategy would be to offer lower premiums and higher co-pays, as healthy people who don’t expect to use health insurance would choose this option.
Cherry picking
The amount you must pay for medical care after you have met your deductible. Typically, your plan will pay 80 percent of an approved amount, and your coinsurance will be 20 percent, but this may vary from plan to plan
Coinsurance
a concept which requires health insurance providers to offer health insurance policies within a given territory at the same price to all persons without medical underwriting, regardless of their health status.
Community rating
traditional (indemnity) health insurance where you and your plan each pay a portion of your health expenses, usually after you meet a yearly deductible. In most cases, you can choose any physician, hospital, or other provider (non-network based coverage).
Fee-for-service insurance
why this is a problem:
We pay our doctors, hospitals and other medical providers in ways that reward doing more, rather than being efficient.
Most insurers
Employees use pre-tax dollars to set up these accounts and draw down on them to pay qualified medical expenses during the year. Unused amounts are forfeited at the end of the year.
Flexible spending arrangements
—An insurance company’s list of covered drugs.
Formulary
a form of managed care in which you receive all of your care from participating providers. You usually must obtain a referral from your primary care physician before you can see a specialist.
HMO
Health reimbursement arrangement
An account established by an employer to pay an employee’s medical expenses. Only the employer can contribute to a health reimbursement account.
do you pay taxes on a health reimbursement arrangement
NO
who decides what you can pay for with a HRA
Your employer
usually have to use contributions that same year they are credited
Health savings account
- a medical savings account available to taxpayers who are enrolled in a High Deductible Health Plan. The funds contributed to the account aren’t subject to federal income tax at the time of deposit. Funds must be used to pay for qualified medical expenses. Unlike a Flexible Spending Account (FSA), funds roll over year to year if you don’t spend them.
a lot of people
High-deductible health plan
—A plan that provides comprehensive coverage for high-cost medical events. It features a high deductible and a limit on annual out-of-pocket expenses. This type of plan is usually coupled with a health savings account or a health spending account.
High-risk pool
A State-operated program that offers coverage for individuals who cannot get health insurance from another source due to serious illness. Typically, premium are much higher than one would pay for individual coverage if you were healthy (see “risk pools”).
Coverage purchased independently (not as part of a group), usually directly from an insurance company.
Individual health insurance
Individual market
Policies for people that aren’t connected to job-based coverage.
Individual rating
risk based on individual’s factors, premiums based on an individual’s likely health care needs
methods of paying for health care
out-of-pocket
individual private Insurance
employment based group private insurance-bismark
government financing-beveredge
(hybrid of out of pocket national systems – individual is paying the entire cost of the insurance, basically paying for their health care) and Bismark, and may supplement government programs (i.e. Medigap or Medicare Part D – Pharmacy coverage)
individual private insurance
employment based group private insurance
(Bismark – pure and simple)
goverment financing accounts for this amount of health care in the US
Pays for almost two-thirds of health care in the US
why do we pay so much for healthcare (8)
higher administrative costs
complicated system for billing
a 2-to-1 ratio of specialists to
primary care physicians
more standby capacity
more malpractice claims
less social support for the poor
higher drug prices
higher health care worker
incomes
what is meant by more standby capactiy
The United States has 4.2 times as many MRI scanners