There are many types of health insurance products available in the market place today.
These medical products range from indemnity plans, major medical, hmo's, ppo's, the ever popular health savings account known as hsa, short term medical, international medical insurance plans, Risk plans and the list continues on. To add to the variety there are also numerous variations of these products which make them appear to look like or act like a different product.
Indemnity type plans were the first type of healthcare products offered to consumers in the infancy of healthcare insurance products.
Around the mid to late 70's the major medicals and hmo's started to appear in the market place and the indemnity plans started to lose popularity.
As the hmo's gained popularity the private insurance companies started to add ppo networks, co-pays, routine exams and drug card benefits to the major medical to give it a bit of flavor somewhat like an hmo and today it is most common to see hmo's with high deductibles and coinsurance making them appear to look and act like a major medical in an effort to reduce cost and qualify as a health savings account insurance or HSA.
Short Term Medical plans also referred to as temporary health plans are most commonly used for graduates leaving school and awaiting employment and also by persons between jobs that cannot justify the cost of a permanent health plan.
Risk plans have also been available for many years however they have been limited by the small number (but growing rapidly) of states that adopted risk insurance plans for their residents or they have been offered by a very limited number of carriers who have elected to enter this type of market place.
Today global travel insurance and international medical insurance is very popular as people travel often for pleasure, education, maintain more than one resident, and numerous other reasons. International medical insurance as well as travel insurance can be purchased for short or long medical health terms.
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