Group Health Insurance

Most people have at least a superficial acquaintance with group insurance because the most common type of group coverage is provided through employment. Many employers make health insurance available to their employees—either by paying the premiums for the employees, by sharing in premium payment, or by deducting the premiums from employees’ paychecks.

Group Health Insurance Policy Types
Group health plans may include any of the several types of insurance we discussed earlier, so this section will serve as a review of those individual coverages. Group plans need not include all coverages, but most will include at least two or more. In addition, disability income coverage may be offered under a group arrangement, but it is usually offered separately from hospital, medical, and surgical coverage.

The first possible group coverage pays benefits for lost earnings resulting from accident or sickness disability and is commonly called disability income insurance.Another common type of group coverage deals with accidental loss of life and accidental loss of one or more limbs or of eyesight. Recall that accidental loss of life is referred to as accidental death and accidental loss of one or more limbs or of eyesight is known as dismemberment.

Still another type of group coverage is hospital expense. These policies can pay for hospital expenses, whether treatment is on an inpatient or resident basis—the insured is admitted to the hospital—or outpatient basis—the insured is not admitted for an overnight stay, but is treated and released the same day. The fees of an attending physician during hospital treatment may also be covered. Some group policies cover only surgical expenses. Although fairly unusual today, such policies do exist. Group health policies frequently provide coverage for medical expenses involving physician or nursing services, but no surgical expense.