Health insurance, also known as medical insurance, is coverage that consumer's purchase in order to protect against the cost of medical care. Many people access health coverage through their employment benefits but the high and rising costs have dictated that the consumer picks up more and more of the costs each year. There are two primary different health care coverage options. The first option is to purchase a "catastrophic" or "high deductible" plan. This is a plan that has relatively low monthly premiums but only provides insurance in cases where the medical costs exceed a threshold--usually a few thousand dollars or more. Most consumers have a variant of the second type of insurance: managed care. Under these plans, consumers pay a sizeable monthly premium and pay relatively low use fees for doctor's visits or other medical care, including perscriptions. Negotiations between the consumer and the health care insurer become common as each side attempts to get the other to pay varying portions of each bill.