Overview

So you're probably wondering what exactly your health insurance will cover when you decide to purchase a plan. Depending on what you get, it may cover next to nothing or just about everything. Below is a list of the things that are typically covered with an average health insurance plan, ranging from mental health to office visits. You can expect some of these to have a co-pay and some to be without a co-pay. On average, the cheaper check-ups offer next to no co-pays, where as something more exotic (sterilization) is going to require you to pay for most of it.

Office Visits & Hospital Stays

An office visit (or trip to your normal physician) is usually covered by most health insurance plans. Even if they're not, the co-pay is usually very small. Physician visits are common and cheap compared to something like a surgery, meaning most health insurance companies will cover these right away. Depending on your insurance, this will either be near completely covered or require a large co-pay. Typically, it comes down to what insurance plan you have, but most will cover some percentage of your hospital stay. Remember, it comes down to whatever you're paying for. Odds are most of this will be covered, but unless you have a very high premium and low deductible, expect to have a co-pay.

Emergency Room Visits

Emergency room visits are one of the higher tier things in the health insurance playing field. Things that would normally be quite cheap are much more expensive, especially if emergency surgery is required to fix things. For example, a broken bone of serious gash would require immediate medical attention and also rely on the hospital's state-of-the-art technology to get you well. There are also ambulance fees that go into an emergency room visit as well and those are usually pretty expensive. Most health insurance providers will cover some of your emergency room visit, though likely not all of it.

Physical Therapy

After a broken bone or major surgery that effects your mobility, you're likely going to need physical therapy. This one is actually covered decently by most health insurance plans. Once again, it depends on your plan, but odds are that your coverage will be good for physical therapy.

Mental Health

We know more about mental health today than we ever have and surprisingly, most anti-depressants and other psychoactive drugs are getting cheaper. This is due to generics arriving on the market and the increase in what we know about the brain's fundamental inner-workings. Your health insurance plan will likely cover things like medications and psychologist visits. It will even cover things like inpatient stays for extensive treatment, but like the stuff above, expect to pay in on this as well.

Modern health insurance covers a lot of things, especially compared to what it used to cover. There's no reason to avoid getting health insurance, especially with things like the health care act taking precedence on the market. Science and medicine have come a long way in the world and health insurance is cheaper than it ever has been.

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