How to choose

Of course, the plan you pick depends on many factors, including your health, whether your current doctors participate, and what your employer offers. Whether you choose an HMO or a PPO, consider one of our top-rated plans if they are among your options. Higher-rated plans were easier to deal with and provided superior care. A 2008 report from the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) found that if all health plans performed as well as the top 10 percent of plans it rated, up to 88,900 lives could be saved each year, and up to $3.7 billion in unnecessary hospital costs could be avoided. When you're choosing a health insurance, keep these things in mind:

Try an HMO if cost is key

Check how much you paid for your coverage in the past 12 months. Then compare that with the monthly premiums, deductibles, co-pays or co-insurance, and prescription costs you would have to pay in other plans that are available to you. Our respondents who had HMOs not only paid less for their coverage, they also had fewer complaints and reported better customer service.

Consider a PPO if you won't switch doctors

If you want to continue seeing providers who are not members of an available HMO, you might be happier (and pay less) in a PPO. The HMO might pay very little if anything for nonplan providers.

Check our Ratings

Our reader scores are based on overall satisfaction with the health plans. We also measured factors that over the years we have found to be very important to patients: access to doctors and medical care, choice of doctors, quality of telephone support, frequency of billing problems, and the care doctors provide. For this survey, we added Ratings of Web-site quality and support.

Get a report card

If you're considering a plan that is not listed in our Ratings, you might find information about it on the NCQA's Web site. The group, which is partly funded by the insurance industry, provides report cards on 55 PPOs and 404 HMOs.

Consider your health

If you have a chronic condition, you'll probably run into shortcomings with either kind of plan; you'll have to choose which you think is more bearable. Look for plans with disease-management programs for your condition.

Check complaints

Call your state department of insurance to see whether current members have logged complaints against the plan. Find contact information for your state at www.naic.org/state_web_map.htm.

Plan ahead for changes

For example, if you are planning to have a child in the coming year, keep that in mind when you are choosing health insurance; look for one that pays for prenatal care and well-baby visits.