With all the changes in health care recently there is a huge questions many Americans have on their minds….do I even need health insurance and why am I being forced to purchase it?Even now that Health Care Reform is here there are so many other reasons to consider all of the major benefits of health insurance and to look at some of the ways you could be left exposed if you don’t have a major medical health insurance policy in place.Nobody plans to get hurt or ill and regardless of our good intentions and efforts to stay healthy and safe we will all most likely need health insurance at some point in our lives. Health insurance guarantees you will not be left alone to pay the high and constantly rising cost of medical bills.Health insurance protects you and your family!People typically greatly underestimate the cost of charges for an ER visit or how much it can cost to fix a broken bone let alone a hospital stay. As of June 2014 the average cost for a 3-day hospital stay is $30,000, a trip to the ER for even a minor injury can cost upwards of $5,000 and it could cost you close to $7,500 to fix that broken bone (including physical therapy). These are costs that can really hurt an individual or family financially.If you have a major medical health insurance policy, it will help share these costs with you or cover them all.Another way insurance could protect you is the free preventative medical services offered on the marketplace today. The theory being that preventative medical care prevents emergency medical care and the high cost of emergencies. If you can prevent an illness, the likeness of you needing to use your medical insurance is greatly reduced.How it works….You pay a monthly premium for the coverage, you pay that every month regardless of if you use the policy or that month not. As long as you pay the premiums the coverage stays in place for when you do need it, just like Auto Insurance.In the event you do need to use your health insurance for any reason you would pay a deductible. A deductible is the set amount that you are responsible for prior to your health insurance carrier paying for your medical expenses. Once you have paid your deductible your insurance company pays the remainder of your medical expenses. Most insurance companies also offer you free preventative services prior to your deductibles being met.The co-payment, as I’ve mentioned in another blog, is a set amount you’ll pay for a service or a doctor’s office visit whenever you need one.Co-insurance is close to a co-payment but it is based on a percentage of costs you pay such as a $20.00 out of a $100.00 medical fee. Your insurance company would pay the rest.The bottom line…..The bottom line is the bottom line which is called the Out-of-pocket maximum. This is the total amount you will ever have to pay in case you ever get sick or injured. Look at this as the maximum exposure and damage to you financially. Let’s say you have an out-of-pocket maximum of $3,500, once you pay that in a combination of copayments, deductibles and coinsurance amounts, your major medical plan will pay %100 for any other expenses incurred for the rest of the calendar year.People with no insurance need to consider being exposed to the high cost of health care. Medical bills are the number one cause of debt and can even lead to a bankruptcy.Please visit this link to learn more about how health insurance works http://youtu.be/A4-pklsDT_QAs always, health insurance can be confusing, always ask your insurance agent about how your health insurance policy works.