A Beginner’s Guide to Health Insurance

After my panic subsided and I went to my university for help, I got incredibly lucky. My school offers a health insurance plan specifically for students, as well as full scholarships to cover those that really need it. But the month where the situation was uncertain was terrible, and I realized how important health insurance is, and even more importantly, how incredibly difficult it is to understand.

Getting your own health insurance is one of the biggest steps of adulthood. For such a controversial topic, the process of getting health insurance can be incredibly confusing, overwhelming, and strange. Whether you’re just getting health insurance for the first time, still on your parents’ plan, or just want to be able to understand the debate over healthcare a little better, here are 10 key concepts to understand about how a health care plan works.

Premium

Your insurance premium is essentially your monthly bill that, by paying, keeps your insurance active. For anyone whose employer offers coverage, this is sometimes partly or wholly paid by their employer. Often, this is used as a metric for how expensive health insurance is considered, even though a cheap plan may not fully cover everything you need and the amount you pay out of pocket is actually more expensive. An important concept within this is that premiums are fully…

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