In today’s economy of massive lay offs and business closures I am finding more and more parents calling for coverage on just their children. These policies can range from great to just plain bad in the coverage spectrum. So I warn you, buyer beware. Here are the things I look for when providing quotes for children health insurance.

Simply put, most consumers don’t have a clue what questions they should be asking brokers before they purchase a health plan. I try to always remember that when dealing with parents only wanting to cover their children and I attempt to only present policies that go above and beyond the normal benefits levels. I think we all will agree that kids have the greatest likely hood of have x-rays and lab work done when visiting their doctor or pediatrician. Rarely do grown up have lab and xrays done when visiting their doctor. Also kids have visit after visit to the doctor peppered with both well baby care and immunizations. When dealing with parents looking to cover only their kids I always focus on policies that will cover both lab and x-rays with just a co-pay rather than have those procedures apply to some goofy $2500 deductible. Regardless of what some  health insurance brokers or agents say, those types of policies do exist . I just feel that kids deserve theses benefits.

Another important factor I try to consider is the immunization schedule. All major medical health insurance plans must follow state mandates as it relates to immunizations, basically the are covered up to about age six. Well, my question is what if there are other preventive or well baby visits beyond age six? I feel we should explore coverage that goes out to age 18. Again, those policies do exist, regardless of what someone may tell you.

There are so many policies on the street today offering affordable health insurance for children that have limits on the number of doctor visits. That’s should be a big no-no. I feel we should never limit the number of times kiddos can go to the doctor. Those policies may work fine for grown adults that may go to the doctor no more than two times a year but I feel it will totally upset a mom or dad that gets told at the pediatrician they must pay in full for any future doctor visits. I just will not present these policies and you should stay away from them too with little kids.

OK, another benefit that most policies do not cover is emergency room treatment without a deductible being satisfied. Virtually every policy requires a deductible and co-pay to be met before receiving treatment in an emergency room. Again, if your kids have a $2500 deductible you are basically paying for the entire emergency room treatment out of your pocket. There are a few policies available that offer ER treatment or Urgent Care facility coverage with only a small co-pay.

I think it’s a given that whatever children’s health insurance policy you purchase should be a major medical policy with lifetime maximums of somewhere around $3 or $5 million dollars. That should be common. And having coverage for all the big items like cancer and trauma will most likely be covered and you probably already know to look for those things.

Now, who is delivering on the benefits I have mentioned above? Well, there are a few. Unicare will defiantly stand above the rest in this type of policy. Aetna has an excellent policy that encompass most of the above mentioned benefits as well. World Insurance Company also has introduced a nice policy that should do the job in providing health insurance for children.

From a monthly price stand point I think Unicare will most likely be the best option for consumers. Unicare may be a tad more expensive than companies like Blue Cross and Blue Shield or Cigna but they just flat out blow them away when it comes to benefits for kids.

So if you are finding the harsh economy is making it more and more difficult to afford health insurance coverage on the entire family and thoughts of canceling your policy have crept into your thought process STOP. Let’s take a quick look at finding affordable health insurance for your children.