When you are shopping around for a health plan, you need to ask a lot of questions before making your selection and writing that check for your first premium payment. Questions such as: Are only certain physicians in your coverage network? Will you be covered for treatment for a pre-existing condition? What constitutes a pre-existing condition? What about physicals and insurance? Are they covered?

Many health plans can be difficult to understand and give very specific criteria for what is and is not covered. You do not want to get that "surprise" letter from your health insurance carrier informing you that your last visit to the doctor's office will not be covered due to something that did not meet the guidelines. One such surprise can be finding out that a routine physical exam is not covered by your health plan.

Many health plan providers do not cover elective surgery, preventative care or routine physical exams. As far as physicals and insurance; some policies may clearly state that the doctor's services that are covered do not include routine physical exams, while others policies may not be as clear. Some providers may pay all or a percentage of a one-time preventive physical exam and some employers may pay for a physical exam that is required for employment.

The reason many health plans in the United States do not cover routine physicals is because they do not treat a specific illness, condition or injury and they are not considered worth the cost. In the 1980s, and independent committee of physicians appointed by the government, evaluated the pros and cons of periodic physical exams. It was deemed that the benefits the "head to toe" complete physical exam yields are too few to make it worth its cost, so many insurance companies stopped covering routine physicals. In fact, the committee reported that among healthy people, a regular physical exam didn't guarantee better health or a longer life.

Some of the costly tests that used to be routinely performed during a general physical such as chest X-rays, blood counts and urinalysis are no longer done routinely and are now reserved only for patients displaying symptoms of ailments. However, even though the elimination of such tests has reduced the cost of the periodic physical exam, many health plans still do not cover them or even a percentage of them.

Despite the committee's findings, many in the medical profession still believe that a regular physical exam will increase the quality of life, as well as a person's longevity. However, even if there we to be published findings to that effect still do not expect your health plan to cover those physicals.