Medical Insurance
Medical insurance is the name given to insurance coverage that provides financial relief to people individually or in a group in situations of medical, accidental or other unexpected exigencies. It is also used to refer to insurance coverage in cases of disability, injury and long-term medical needs. Medical insurance can be provided by government run hospitals or agencies or privately owned corporations and can be purchased by an individual, a group as in the case of a family or by an employer to provide medical relief to the employees. In medical insurance, the benefitting party pays a certain sum as premium to help insure themselves or their families or their employees against unexpected medical or healthcare expenses. Social welfare programs which are funded by governmental agencies may also provide medical expense benefits to the covered individual.
The concept of medical or health insurance has been around since the late 1600s when laws that regulated health insurance referred primarily to accident disability or disability insurance. This is true to the United States where mining and trading corporations flourished. Such companies floated the idea of insurance coverage to protect against injuries in steamboat or railroad accidents. Insurance coverage for sickness first found mention in the 1850s although the first employer sponsored employee group policy for accident disability was first issued only in 1911.
Before the concept of healthcare or medical insurance people requiring healthcare were expected to pay towards medical care out of their own pockets in the first ever 'fee for service' business model. During the mid and late twentieth century this evolved into a more complete health care program with structured fee payments. In the first half of the twentieth century hospital policies for medical expenses were being offered by individual hospitals on a pre-paid basis, leading to the establishment of the Blue Cross Organization. Today's Health Maintenance Organizations originated in the 1920s and continued evolving till World War II.
Populations around the word struggle to meet rising costs of living and studies have shown that millions of people have skipped medical care because of exorbitant cost of medical care and therefore did not get needed health care or medical attention. Research shows that nearly 50% of young adults with chronic health conditions suffered serious setbacks to their health because of non coverage.
Rising medical costs have affected more young people in the age groups of 18 to 21 because they are usually covered under parents' medical policies or family health schemes which provide them adequate relief till the age when they start independent medical or health coverage. As most of them work part time to put themselves through higher education and to support family incomes, they invariably fail to insure themselves for much needed health care benefits. This is a doubly vulnerable age group because they are more prone to accidents and accident inducing activities. Thus, at their old age insurance becomes a resort to secure their live. And they take a shelter under medical insurance in order to ensure themselves a healthy lifestyle.