Premiums, co-pays, deductibles, in-network, out-of-network —
welcome to the world of health insurance. And you thought
advanced calculus was confusing! What Exactly Is Health
Insurance? Health insurance is a plan that people buy into in
return for coverage on all kinds of medical care. Most plans
cover doctors' appointments, emergency room visits, hospital
stays, and medications. The idea behind insurance is simple:
Medical care can be so expensive that most people can't pay for
it entirely out of their own pockets. But if a group of people
gets together, and they each agree to pay a fixed amount every
month (whether they need medical care at that time or not), the
risk is spread out over the whole group. Each person is
protected from high health care costs because the burden is
shared by many. Do I Really Need It? You're young, you spend
more time in the gym than an Olympic athlete, you rarely get
anything worse than a cold, and your great-grandparents are
still kicking at 99. Why bother spending money on in