Things to Watch Out for With Delaware Health Insurance Coverage

Here are two types of health-related services that are not health insurance plans:

Discount Plans or Discount Cards. You may see or receive advertisements from plans offering discounts on health care for a monthly fee. These are not health insurance plans, and participants do not have the same protections as under licensed health insurance.

Discount cards do not pay medical claims. Instead the consumer with the card is responsible for paying for services at the time care is received. Many of the discount plans do not cover all types of services and conditions. And the discount card is only good with doctors and health providers that have agreed to accept it.

Some of the discount cards use high-pressure marketing tactics and ask for a large, upfront fee. They are often advertised via spam emails, internet pop-up ads, on roadside signs or on telephone poles.

The Insurance Commissioner's Office strongly recommends that you thoroughly investigate any plan promising deep discounts for a "low" monthly fee and weigh the benefits against the costs carefully.

Non-Licensed Risk-Sharing Plans. You may receive offers to join a group or association that will take your monthly payments, put them in a savings account, or trust, with other participants' money, and then help pay some of your health care costs, as needed.

Such arrangements are not insurance and the participants do not have the protections available to purchasers of licensed insurance plans. The Insurance Commissioner's Office strongly recommends that you thoroughly investigate such plans before joining.

Medical discount cards and risk-sharing plans are not insurance and are not regulated by the Insurance Commissioner's Office, thus the office has no ability to force such plans to take any action should a consumer have a problem.