When you have or buy health insurance,what does the term deductable mean?

Time ago I was wondering about the same and other small print definitions, but I found most of the answers at this interesting article on this topic: Understanding Your Health Insurance Policy

There is a deductable in just about every insurance policy you will ever buy. It is the amount you agree to pay BEFORE your insurance becomes responsible for the charge. In other types of insurance, your deductable is usually chosen by yourself and can affect the premium.

In health insurance, the deductable is usally a predetermined amount and can be per visit, or per year.

Hope that helps some.

There is often an individual deductable and then one for a family if you have a family plan. You usually need to pay that amount out of your pocket before the insurance will begin to pay for any of your healthcare expenses.

Isn't it pretty much the same as a car insurance deductible? The amount you will need to pay until the insurance will cover the rest. The lower the deductible the better you are.

If when reading your insurance papers you find you have, say an 80/20 plan that generally means that you pay 20% as the deductible. If the cots of the medical procedure is $100, you would pay $20.

When possible, try to get an overall family deductible as opposed to a per individual one.