Health, dental, and vision insurance: A comprehensive guide

When shopping for health, dental, and vision insurance, it is important to consider the benefits, limitations, and exclusions offered by the insurance provider.

Video Transcript

- When it comes to buying health insurance, there are many choices. Your employer may offer health insurance, or it might be available through your spouse's employer. If not, you can buy insurance through an insurance agent or through healthcare.gov. That's the federal health insurance marketplace.

Employer-based plans might not have a lot of flexibility, although larger companies may offer several different plans. Individual policies purchased through an agent or in a health insurance marketplace offer much more flexibility in terms of the types of coverage. Plans with richer benefits and lower deductibles have higher premiums.

Health insurance plans may restrict access to certain doctors, hospitals, or labs. You can see doctors or received care at out-of-network facilities, but you'll have to pay a higher copay. Dental insurance provides coverage for dental expenses and exists as individual, family, and group plans that are most likely to be offered by your employer. Coverage varies according to plan.

Basic procedures include fillings, oral surgery, and preventative treatment that some plans offer for free. Plans usually have limits on the number of dental visits and treatments that are covered. Some plans don't cover pre-existing conditions, and some plans only cover the least expensive option for a given treatment.

There may be a deductible that you have to meet and a separate annual benefit limit for different types of services. There may also be co-pays. Vision insurance provides coverage for eye care services that can be obtained through your company or an association or through government programs like Medicare and Medicaid. It costs well below regular health insurance.

With vision insurance, you can generally expect annual eye exams, treatments for some eye conditions, eye glasses, contacts, and fittings to be included. In some cases, your plan might cover laser vision correction like LASIK. Vision insurance costs vary depending on how the plan is structured, how many people are in the plan, and sometimes where they live. Stay financially fit, friends.

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