Insurance · Module 2 of 4
Covering yourself before you can afford to
Protecting yourself before you can afford a policy: the risks that matter most and what to build toward first.
Key terms in Covering yourself before you can afford to
- Catastrophic health plan
A catastrophic health plan is a type of health insurance with lower monthly premiums and a high deductible, meant to cover major medical events. Under federal rules, it pays for three primary care visits a year before the deductible is met and otherwise covers essential benefits after it. Eligibility is generally limited to people under age 30 or those with a qualifying hardship or affordability exemption.
- Health care sharing ministry
A health care sharing ministry is a membership organization whose participants, who usually share religious or ethical beliefs, contribute monthly amounts that are used to pay other members' medical bills. These arrangements are not insurance and cannot guarantee payment of claims. State insurance regulators do not supervise them, and they are not required to follow the consumer protections that apply to health plans.
- Risk pooling
Risk pooling is the practice of combining the losses of a group so that every member shares them, and it is the basic mechanism behind insurance. Members swap a smaller, predictable contribution for protection against a large, uncertain loss. As a pool grows, its total losses become easier to predict, which lets the pool set its costs more precisely.
Every term on Lever is in the money glossary.
About this module
Covering yourself before you can afford to is part of Insurance, one of 15 subjects in Lever. It’s a short run of 5 lessons, about 13 minutes in all, so you can finish it in one sitting.
Every lesson takes one idea at a time. You read it with the math worked out step by step, answer a question that puts it to use, then see why the right answer is right and why the others aren’t.
It’s for anyone who was never taught this, and you don’t need to know anything first. Every lesson is free. Lever works out what you already know, so you can start here or let your path bring you to it.
More in Insurance
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1
When something goes wrong
How insurance works: premiums, deductibles, filing a claim, and the gaps public coverage leaves.
9 lessons -
3
What a policy is for
Liability cover, life insurance for the people who rely on you, and the fine print about what a policy won’t pay for.
5 lessons -
4
What you still pay
Copays, coinsurance and your yearly maximum, and why the cheapest monthly price isn’t always the cheapest year.
6 lessons
Try this module
It’s part of Insurance. Lever will bring it to you when you’re ready, or you can go straight there.