Jonquilyn Hill

Do you have a standing appointment with a healthcare provider that you want to make sure you can keep seeing that same provider?

You know, do you have prescriptions that you take regularly?

And then you want to look at what your options are.

There's a few different kinds of plans that might be offered to you.

There's an HMO, there's a PPO, and then there's some other things that are kind of in between.

So an HMO,

You're going to have to pick a primary care provider.

That person is sort of determining how many other specialists you can see.

You have to ask for permission.

A PPO, you have a lot more flexibility.

That one, you can go see a specialist usually without a referral.

You can also see out-of-network people with a PPO plan.

So I would be looking at...

how you're using your health insurance, what you think your healthcare needs might be going forward.

For example, are you turning to an age where you suddenly need a little more visits to the doctor?

Are you thinking that you might be growing your family in the next year?

And just sort of weighing what you think you're going to need in the next year and then looking closely at the fine print of your plans.

Okay, when it comes to price, how do these plans shake out?

So you'll notice that the HMO is probably going to be cheaper than the PPO.

And that's because you've got this limited network of providers.