Nothing is more confusing to a shopper if they are presented with two similar but different health insurance options and not knowing which one will cover their insurance needs. While both HMO and PPO are more affordable, not many people know the difference between the two. Read on.

Health Maintenance Organization might be better known by it acronym HMO, and is a very effective affordable health care plan. Those who decide to join a HMO can expect good services from the group of doctors, hospitals and clinics within this organization in their specific area. Other benefits of HMO memberships are very minimal co-pays for patients, lower premiums and often times HMO doctor visits are free.

HMO plans are however very restricting as they make you choose one primary health care physician from their list of approved providers and that person is basically in charge of every aspect of your care. No matter what your health issue you must present it to this physician first and they will have to be the ones to provide you with a referral to another provider. This can pretty tedious unless you have a doctor that you really like and can trust.

PPO health plans, also known as Preferred Provider Organizations are similar to HMO plans but are very loose about their rules. A PPO also keeps costs relatively low, however unlike the HMO plan you can choose to see any of the doctors within the network at the same high coverage levels. If you choose to go outside of the network for some reason a PPO will usually provide you coverage for these outside services but at a lower coverage amount. This means essentially that you still have health insurance coverage anywhere that you go.

While there are some limits to both plans a PPO will cost you a little more but allows quite a bit more freedom which many prefer. Either way you will find that these two options are both much more affordable than other more traditional health plans and that is one of the reasons that these plans remain a preferred alternative to many people. The savings you can experience in these types of plans for many is much more important than whether or not they get to see the doctor of their choice. Essentially it depends on what your bottom line is and that is something that you will have to decide for yourself and for your family.