Financial education

How to choose health insurance for yourself?

Knowing how to choose health insurance for yourself is important to guarantee your well-being and access to the best services and care. Find out how to do it today!

Learn how to choose health insurance for you and your family

pessoa com uma caneta presa entre os dedos, mexendo no mouse e pesquisando pelo computador — Do you know how to choose insurance for you? Source: Pexels.

It is essential to know how to choose health insurance for yourself and this requires attention. After all, it is this choice that will determine which medical services you will have access to.

Furthermore, it will also impact the quality of care you receive, access to resources and more. So, as health is a serious matter, the choice needs to be made correctly and well-informed.

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Therefore, to help you, we have brought some of the main points to consider when choosing health insurance for yourself. Here, you will find the best tips available.

So, read below and find out everything about the subject, from how to read and interpret contracts correctly to what to look out for when choosing the right one for you!

How to choose health insurance? See the main points to observe!

There are several points

Understand the language of the insurance contract

The insurance contract has very specific language. Therefore, it is important that you are familiar with the terms used.

This way, you will know exactly what the insurance company is proposing, what your rights and duties are. However, check out a general overview of the main terms:

Policy: corresponds to the formalization of the insurance contract and presents the main information about it (coverage, signature date, validity, renewal, available capital, monthly payments, etc.);
Award: corresponds to the amount you pay in favor of the insurance company. It can be monthly, annually or at another frequency agreed by the parties;
Coverages: indicates which situations the insurance covers and provides assistance with (for example: emergency care, surgeries, hospitalizations, etc.);
Exclusions: situations that insurance does not cover;
Grace period: corresponds to the time that must elapse between the contract and the start of using the services;
Pre-existing illness: illness that you have and have already been diagnosed with when signing up for the health plan. It must be informed to the insurer and may also lead to the denial of the contract (in which case the insurer does not accept the risk of having a consumer as a client).

Get to know insurance companies and their reputation in the market

Another precaution when choosing the best health insurance for you is to know which insurance companies offer it.

Today there are several companies that work with health insurance. Therefore, it is necessary to know which ones provide a serious and quality service and which ones do not.

To do this, carry out research on consumer opinions about the services of these insurance companies. Likewise, ask friends and family for recommendations and find out about their experiences with the companies available.

This way, you know better what to expect from each insurance company and which ones do not hinder access to the promised services.

Find out what the expense sharing options are

When choosing health insurance, it is important that you know that there are different types of coverage. In other words, how the services are used. See alternatives:

Copayment: in this case, the medical expense is divided between you and the insurance company. In other words, in addition to the premium paid in favor of the insurance company, you must also pay part of the cost of consultations, exams and other coverage. This form of participation can have different proportions. It only applies to insurers that have a network of service partners;
Reimbursement: in this case, you pay for medical care and then present proof of expense to the insurance company, which will reimburse you. It can be 100% of the value of the medical expense or less, in case of copayment;
Mixed: in this case, the customer can use services inside or outside the accredited network and request a refund.

Available capital

Another point that cannot escape your attention when choosing health insurance for yourself is the available capital.

It corresponds to the total amount that each insured person can use annually. In other words, it is how much the insurance covers in health expenses per year.

For example, the insurance provides X thousand Euros for hospital expenses, X for consultations, X for exams, etc.

In this sense, consider that if you require hospitalization and exceed the total coverage amount, you will have to pay the rest of the expenses.

This happens even if the insurance has coverage, because in this case you have already used the available capital. Therefore, pay attention to the value available in the contract.

In fact, remember to analyze the capital available for each service or type of service, as they tend to vary from one another.

Coverages

imagem com uma pessoa pesquisando sobre como escolher um seguro de saúde — Choosing good health insurance is very important, here's how to do it. Source: Pexes

To choose the best health insurance for you, it is essential to analyze the coverage of the available alternatives.

After all, they represent which products and services the insured will have access to and under what conditions.

Therefore, they reveal the benefits that the customer finds when contracting this plan, as it limits availability.

For example, be aware that while some plans cover getting hearing aids or mobility aids, others do not offer this coverage.

However, find out about the main types of coverage and what each one means and covers:

Outpatient: Coverage of general clinic or specialist consultations;
International medical coverage for serious illness: covers consultations, hospitalizations and medical care on foreign soil. Here, it is important to see what specific services are available and the countries in which they are valid;
Stomatology: covers dental consultations and treatments;
Hospitalization: hospitalizations for more than 24 hours;
Medicines: corresponding to medicines needed for treatments in hospital or at home;
Prosthetics and Orthoses: covers the purchase of various prostheses, such as orthopedics, hearing aids, glasses, etc.;
Second medical opinion: access to another doctor, for a second opinion, in case of serious illness.

Shortage

Finally, remember to analyze the grace period required by the health plan.

After all, it corresponds to the time that must pass after signing the contract for you to have access to medical services.

Therefore, if you need immediate care or have some type of predisposition to illnesses, prefer plans with a shorter waiting period, although they tend to be more expensive.

Additionally, if you are interested in finding out more about what NISS is and how it works, see below!

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About the author / Aline Augusto

My name is Aline Mesquita, I'm a writer here on the blog, where I write about finance in general, as well as other topics. I have been working with content creation for 10 years, with a postgraduate degree in Project Management, with expertise in SEO practices, in addition to studying finance, market trends and cryptocurrencies.