If you are like most people, you buy health insurance or join a group health insurance plan for three reasons. The first is of course, to protect yourself and your family from catastrophic costs associated with a serious illness or accident. The second reason is to help limit the regular costs of routine health care and regular preventive care. The third reason is to have access to qualified physicians. What if you want to see a specialist for your condition? Can you buy specialist health insurance?

The quick answer is; well there is no quick answer. Health insurance policies are divided into two basic types; PPO, which stands for preferred provider organization, and HMO, or health maintenance organization. Your group health insurance could be either. The fundamental difference to you if seeing a specialist is a high priority is this: The HMO allows you to choose your doctor from a provided list of physicians who are directly associated with the group and the PPO allows you to select any physician you wish as long as she is within the provider network. That means that with very few exceptions, you can continue to see your preferred primary health care provider because the networks are extensive. It is more than likely that your doctor is a member.

Specialist health insurance simply means that your private or group health insurance policy provides access to qualified practitioners in a variety of specialties from cardiology to pain management to dermatology. More often than not, any good PPO has many such capable physicians in the network. For all normal medical situations, there is no reason to believe that you would have to go out of the network to find a doctor for your condition. For all practical purposes, this health insurance is also specialist health insurance.

The reality of the HMO is that although you may find just the right specialist on its list of providers, you also may not. It is more probable that you will be forced to use a specialist who is not associated with the HMO and the policy will not pay for those services. In reality, no matter what health plan you buy, you are always free to seek a specialist on your own if you are willing to pay for all or certainly a large part of his fees.

If you are seeking specialist health insurance coverage, your best bet is to join a top rated PPO that includes many fine medical specialists in its provider network. You can be confident of finding a physician who is an expert in any field and that, within the terms of the contract, your policy will pay the bills.