If you have never had a high deductible family health insurance plan, you might be unfamiliar with how the deductible works. Rather than waiting until you have to use your insurance to ask about the deductible, both you and your family will be better off getting a clearer picture of how your insurance works before you actually need to use it.
With high deductible health plans, your benefits will not begin for anyone in your family until the deductible has been paid in full. Whenever members in your family incur medical expenses, the amount that they pay for those expenses will be credited towards the family deductible. As these expenses add up to the deductible, your insurance coverage will activate and begin paying for a portion of health care expenses for your family.
With high deductible family health insurance plans, there are two ways in which the deductible can be taken care of. If there is one family member who has high medical expenses, taking care of those expenses for that family member will reach the family deductible, which will cause the coverage to activate for the rest of the family. If several family members have smaller medical expenses, the family deductible will be taken care of as soon as those smaller expenses are added together and equal the amount of the deductible.
The way that this differs from a more traditional family health plan is that with a traditional family health plan each member of the family will have their own individual deductible in addition to the entire family having a family deductible to take care. Anything that is paid towards the individual deductibles goes toward the family deductible.
Something to keep in mind is that not all high deductibles automatically mean that you have a high deductible health plan. High deductible health plans are specific types of health plans, not simply health insurance plans that have a high deductible.
If you ever have any questions whatsoever regarding your family health insurance plan, it is always better to ask your agent rather than simply assume.
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