No-deductible health insurance is a kind of health insurance that doesn’t include a required up front payment by the enrolled member each year. Rather than making the subscriber meet a minimum balance, health insurance with no deductible means the health insurance company will make payments up front, paying out for doctor visits, emergency care, or other events. The down side is that having this kind of policy means those who receive the insurance will generally pay more for it than they would if it included a health insurance deductible.
A lot of no-deductible health insurance plans are employer-based healthcare plans. There are many key differences between the majority of employer-based plans, and most of the self purchased health insurance plans on the market. One main difference is that employer-based plans are forced to cover active employees, where self-purchased plans can deny an applicant for many reasons. With employer-based plans, the higher costs to the individual subscriber, who is the employee, are offset by the fact that the employer is most often paying part of the cost of the policy.
On the other side of the spectrum, some self-purchased plans are the opposite of no-deductible health insurance. High-deductible plans make the subscriber pay up to several thousand for any medical care in a given year. The positive side to these plans is that premiums tend to be lower, and if the health care costs exceed a certain cap (the deductible plus other related costs) the health insurance will pay additional costs, allowing families to estimate their maximum annual out of pocket cost, and budget for medical emergencies. These kind of high-deductible plans are called “catastrophic” health insurance plans.
In a rush to anticipate possible changes related to recent healthcare reform, a lot of insurance companies are changing the way they pursue policy offerings to consumers. Some of the newer plans may be no-deductible health insurance, and some may include significant deductibles. Both kinds of options will appeal to a certain kind of consumer or household, depending on how people like to budget their medical expenses