One of the most important things in life is health insurance. In many countries
around the world, health care is paid for from taxes, and every citizen is
automatically covered. This is known as single payer healthcare. Unfortunately,
that is not the case in America, where a serious but treatable illness can be a
death sentence unless you have health insurance. This is why it is important to
be insured at all times.

To give you an for example, I knew a woman who was traveling in South America.
She chose not to have health insurance, figuring that since she was young and in
good health, she did not need it. In fact, she had hardly been sick a day in her
life. While touring one day, she began to feel nauseous and started experiencing
dizzy spells. These symptoms gradually became worse and when she could no longer
ignore them, she returned to the United States and immediately went to a doctor,
who diagnosed her with cancer.

A doctor's visit and a series of tests can, on its own, cost hundreds of
dollars. Cancer treatment can easily cost thousands, or tens or hundreds of
thousands of dollars. Because she was unable to afford an expense of such
magnitude she just became more and more ill, until she eventually, tragically
died. The outcome may have been much different had she been insured; her death
may have even been preventable.

Health insurance comes in several different arrangements. A fee-for-service plan
is the most traditional of those. The advantage of this type of plan is that it
gives you a greater range of choices than any other health care plan, and allows
you to go to any doctor you want. Each month you pay a premium. You also have an
annual deductible, perhaps $250 or $500, which is the amount of medical expenses
that you are responsible for in any given year, before your insurance takes
over. After that, they will pay for a majority of additional medical expenses
while you pay a small portion, usually around 20%.

Another type of insurance plan is called an HMO, or Health Management
Organization. In an HMO, patients are required to go a staff of doctors,
located in one or several central locations. The advantage of HMOs is that your
health costs will be much lower. However, you are greatly limited in the number
of choices you have, compared with a fee-for-service plan. There is a small fee
charged for each doctor visit, but your insurance covers most other costs.

Most people are insured through their jobs. Their bosses save money because they
are able to purchase insurance at group rates, thus enabling them to offer their
employees cheaper insurance than they could obtain on their own. Unfortunately
however, because of the way health insurance is structured, if an employee
develops a serious or chronic condition, they may be out of luck if they wish to
leave the company. They will be turned down by other insurers due to the higher
costs anticipated in their medical care, making it necessary for them to stay in
a job in which they may be unhappy.

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