We explained that there are two basic categories of health insurance policies: disability and medical expense. Thus far we have covered disability. Now we'll take a look at basic medical expense insurance. Basic medical expense policies are designed to cover your medical expenses that result from accidents and sickness. This is a loose term that refers to many various medical, hospital and surgical benefits.
The broad category of medical expense coverage generically referred to as health insurance, provides a wide range of benefits for hospital, surgical and medical care. Other benefits may apply as well, such as private nurses, convalescent care, and more.

Health Insurance policies may be written so that they are limited to only one or two types of coverage like hospital or miscellaneous medical costs or surgical expenses. These are known as basic health insurance plans.

Other, more broadly written, policies may cover all expenses resulting from accident or illness using some specific exceptions.

Medical plans include fee-for-service where doctors and other health care providers receive a payment that does not exceed their allowable billed charge for service provided.

Prepaid plans provide medical or hospital benefits in the form of service rather than dollars.

There are many considerations when selecting a medical expense plan such as:

Specified coverage versus comprehensive care. Does the plan feature only specific benefits, or is the coverage comprehensive and complete?

Can I see any provider I choose, or just a limited number of network providers. Are you required to choose from a specific list of providers?

National versus regional operation. Is the plan limited to a specific geographical region or do they operate nationwide?

Insured versus subscribers. Are participants considered insureds (the person who receives the benefit) or subscribers (the person who is paying the premium)?

We are going to take a look at the limited coverage policy for hospital, medical and surgical expenses. Discussing this separately first, will help you to understand how the components are combined in major medical and comprehensive policies.

The broad definition of basic medical expense insurance in most states includes hospital, medical and surgical expenses. The purpose of this type of insurance is to cover a broad range of medical, hospital and surgical expenses as well as separate categories of medical expenses.

Now, we'll explore individual coverage versus group coverage.
No matter how a policy is written, health insurance is designed to reimburse you for the cost of care whether it results from injury or illness. Both individual and group policies are available. Normally individual policies are more costly and offer more limited benefits. But generally, both types cover the same medical services.