The same is true for health insurance, generally if a product is a lot less expensive than another, there is probably a good reason for that. It is up to YOU to make sure you ask the questions that matter so that you can find out what the differences are.

The true definition of insurance is this - to protect against the catastrophic unknown. Far to often, we are more concerned about the co pay (the little stuff), that we forget to make sure that we are in fact covered adequately for the catastrophic events.

With this in mind, I would like to outline some of the most important things that you should ask about the health insurance policy you are considering.

1. What is the calendar year out of pocket (OOP) maximum? You need to know this. This is the maximum, out of your pocket, that you may be required to pay in the event that you have a catastrophic event. Very important!

2.What is the deductible that the policy has? Your deductible is the first dollar amount that you have to pay BEFORE the health insurance policy will start to pay. You will also need to know if the deductible is a calendar year deductible or a per event deductible. Be careful, per event deductibles lead to higher maximum out of pocket exposures.

3. What is the coinsurance amount? Coinsurance is a term that describes the percentage of the bill that you will be sharing with the insurance company. An 80/20 coinsurance means that the insurance company pays 80% of the bill, you pay the remaining 20%

4. Does the policy have an Emergency Room co pay? If you health insurance policy does NOT have an emergency room co pay, you will likely have to meet your deductible before the insurance company will start to pay any of your bills.

5. Does the network of doctors include the doctors and hospitals that you would like to work with? Some networks may include only one hospital, even if your town or city has two or more. Is the hospital where you would elect to have surgery done in a non emergency situation is in the network, that is good.

6. How does the health insurance policy that you are considering handle out of network events? Some health insurance policies have a way that you can be covered when you are out of state. Check to see how each one works.

After finding out about these key things, you then start to make tradeoffs in your mind about that you know is important and what you want, and then how much you are prepared to pay for that health insurance policy.

All too often we find ourselves shopping the premium at sale time, and then when it comes time to use it, we want the benefit that we weren't prepared to pay for at sale time.