Basic medical expense insurance, commonly known as hospital and surgical insurance, provides reimbursement of certain medical costs that result from accidents or sicknesses. There are two broad types of hospital and surgical insurance:

• Plans with sub-limits for room and board, surgery, miscellaneous hospital expenses, etc.

• Plans with overall limit for in-hospital and out-hospital expenses.

Usually, hospital and surgical policies pay from the first dollar, but have relatively low coverage.

Major medical or catastrophic medical plans also cover hospital and surgical expenses, but have much higher limits and usually have a deductible (the portion that must be paid by the patient) and co-insurance (the percentage that must be paid by the patient).

Medishield plans are examples of major medical.