What does a catastrophic health plan provide?

If your employer won’t provide you with health insurance, then you need to purchase a “catastrophic” health policy, also called a “major medical” plan. Catastrophic health plans have high deductibles and low monthly premiums that cover only hospital or medical expenditures. Everything else, like routine doctor visits, prescription drugs, and other things, you will to pay yourself because it is not covered by a “catastrophic” health plan.

Catastrophic health plans cover hospital stays, surgery, intensive care, diagnostic X-ray, and lab tests. You have an option to choose a high-deductible plan, and if you do, then your deductible will be $500 or higher. Those plans also have high-lifetime, maximum benefits, or “caps” estimated by $1 million and $3 million. The people, who reach that cap, won’t be provided with medical expenses, paid by the insurance company.
 
With a high-deductible plan, a person needs to pay for his/her medical needs until the expenses will reach the cost of his/her deductible. In case your surgery costs $7,000 and your deductible is estimated by $15,000, you will be paying for your own surgery. 

In other words, there is a high chance that you will reduce your monthly premiums, but you need to make an estimate of how much money you will spend to care for yourself. 

A catastrophic plan usually does not pay for pregnancy care. Make sure you check what coverage is available for the pregnancy care. If a catastrophic plan does cover maternity care, it won’t take affect for full year after the date you purchased it.  

There are two major groups who purchase catastrophic health insurance. The first group contains of young adults in their 20s who are usually self-employed or do not have coverage through their employers. The second group consists of adults between the ages of 50 to 65, who care about their financial losses brought by their heart attacks, cancer, and other serious illnesses that might have been developed with age.

You can purchase an individual plan when you buy a high-deductible health insurance policy. Companies with 1,000 or more employees offer higher deductible plans. Usually retirees who are not eligible for Medicare anymore choose high-deductible insurance policies as individual plans in order to lower premiums.

With serious health condition problems such as AIDS, diabetes, emphysema, heart disease, multiple sclerosis, schizophrenia and many others, it is likely that you may not be eligible to buy a catastrophic health plan. 

Insurance companies such as Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida offers a catastrophic health plan called “Essential” in most countries. Other services, such as doctor visits, maternity care, prescription drugs, and mental health visits are not covered. Golden Rule Insurance Co. also offers Basic Plan, a high-deductible health plan with deductible prices ranging from $500 to $5,000.