Major medical insurance is the name given to one particular form of what is ordinarily referred to today as indemnity or fee-for-service health insurance.

Climbing health costs these days mean that we are gradually moving away from traditional forms of medical insurance and the original indemnity medical insurance plan is now being replaced by a number of other plans including HMO (health maintenance organization) plans, PPO (preferred provider organization) plans and POS (point of service) plans.

In essence indemnity medical insurance plans are intended to cover unanticipated medical bills resulting from injury and illness and give policy holders substantial freedom in selecting where treatment is taken and by whom such treatment is provided. Fee-for-service policy holders are also normally responsible for making payment for their treatment and for then claiming back the cost from their insurer.

Newer plans by contrast focus much more on routine health care with the aim of avoiding unnecessary costs by keeping policy holders well and identifying problems at a very early stage when they are hopefully easy to treat. These newer plans ease administration for policy holders but at the same time take away a lot of the freedom to decide from whom and where treatment may be received.

Most people today are covered by the newer forms of medical insurance instead of by traditional indemnity plans chiefly not only because of their reasonable cost but also because there is much less administration when it comes times to make a claim against your policy. Additionally, a growing number of companies who provide group health insurance plans for their employees are also selecting these newer types of plan. Even so, there is still a large number of people who prefer the freedom of choice that an indemnity policy gives them and it is here where you might like to look at major medical insurance.

Fee-for-service plans provide three forms of coverage; basic health insurance, major medical insurance and comprehensive insurance.

Basic health insurance plans vary from one insurance company to the next but will ordinarily cover hospital care (plus room and board), some hospital services (such as x-rays and medicine), surgery (whether performed in hospital or at another recognized surgery center) and some doctors visits.

Major medical insurance plans by contrast are intended to cover treatment for high cost and long-term injuries and illnesses and both in and out-patient bills associated with these injuries and illnesses.

Finally, comprehensive cover is merely a policy that includes both basic and major medical coverage.

Perhaps not surprisingly major medical insurance plans are a popular choice as many people are quite happy to bear the day to day expense of health care but are worried about how they would cope in the event of a major illness or injury which may entail substantial medical expense that might drag on for months or even years.

Regrettably, the choice and security provided by a major medical insurance policy is reflected in the cost of indemnity plans in general and so it is increasingly becoming an option that a lot of people would wish to select but that is simple becoming too expensive.