When looking for health insurance online you may come across a discount health plan or medical card. These programs are not health insurance. They simply offer discounts that the company has negotiated with healthcare providers. They do not pay your medical bills for you.

One of the issues that consumer advocates have with a discount health plan is the way they are presented. They often appear to the consumer to be health insurance. Even if the buyer realizes it is not full coverage then they may expect the discounts that are touted in the marketing information. Ads for a discount health plan may state that there are discounts up to 60 percent, but the fact is that most services you would need might have discounts as low as five percent.

One way to tell the difference when buying health insurance online is by looking at the actual policy and all of its fine print. Ask questions, but don't expect that the salesperson can give you accurate answers. Call their customer service line back and ask the same questions to see if the answers match.

Ask to see the actual list of providers that accept the discount health plan. You don't want to see a sample of the list but the actual current listing for your area. Verify whether your doctor is included. If you don't have a doctor then call one on the list and ask how they handle this particular discount health plan. You want to know what the specific discounts are and if there are any services that are excluded from the discount.

If you are quoted a low rate and there are no health questions to answer then you may not be getting a quote for health insurance. Discount plans don't try to determine if you are sick or healthy because they do not actually pay the bills. What you think are health insurance online quotes may actually be pitches to have you buy a card for discounted services.

Many discount health plans provide legitimate ways to save consumers money. They can be combined with traditional health insurance but they are no substitute for it. If you have health insurance with a high deductible then you might be able to save money on the services that you pay for out of pocket as you meet your deductible for the year. You must decide if the plan will actually save you more money than it costs you in premiums. Add up the prescriptions you take, the services you normally use, and then apply the actual discounts to those and compare them with the cost of the plan.