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Group Health Insurance

With many jobs people can get some kind of group health insurance through their employer. This is great for women who have jobs that offer this, or have spouses who they can get insured through.

Some employers even offer more than one plan to choose from. While this is great, you then have to choose between these plans. Some of the plans offered may not be as good as others, so it is important to learn all you can about group health insurance, so you can make the best decision.

Important points to consider when trying to decide which to choose include the following:

- Which primary care doctors do you have to choose from? Unless you don't like your current doctor, you will want to make sure that the doctor you have now you can still go to under the particular group health insurance plan you are considering. In any event, you will want to make sure that there are some doctors in the plan that are within a reasonable distance from you. If you prefer women doctors, you may also want to make sure there are an adequate number of them available to choose from.

- Whether or not you can see a specialist without getting a referral from your primary doctor is very important. Most of the time people know what kind and when they need to see a specialist. Having to go see your primary physician first, to ask permission is unnecessary and amounts to treating an adult like a child. It is also time consuming - by the time you can get an appointment scheduled to see your main doctor, then get the referral, wait for the specialist appointment, etc. - a lot of time can pass. Sometimes those few weeks can be very critical if you are feeling bad, in pain or had a serious illness that needs to be treated right away. It can alson end up costing you more money since you will likely have to pay a co-pay also to your main doctor just so you can ask them to 'let you' see the specialist you need to see. In some cases people have to nearly beg their main doctor to even give them the referral!

- If there is any chance of you traveling outside of the general area where you live, you will want to make sure that if there is some kind of medical emergency while you are away, that you will still have some coverage - and that you won't have to pay out-of-network fees to do so.

- Plan maximums and limits. Make sure there is a maximum for the amount of out of pocket fees you have to pay. And that the limit for coverage on the policy for persons lifetime is at least one or two million.

- Choosing a plan with paperless claims is also important, otherwise you have to fill out lots of paperwork any time you have to see doctor.

Another important issue to consider, for some women anyway - is whether you want or need a plan that covers your husband, partner, or children. Many spouses are already covered under their own employers plan. It is not good to be covered by two different policies - you may find it difficult to get either policy to pay!

And if you have children that need to be covered - you have to decide which person policy to put them on. In this case you should compare the policies very carefully, including the costs for each to decide how to get your children covered.