Deductible

Deductible

An amount or period which must be deducted before an insurance payout or settlement is calculated.

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Deductible

1. Able to be taken off of one's tax liability. See: Deduction.

2. In insurance, the amount that a policyholder must pay for a claim before the insurance company will make any payments at all. That is, if an insured event happens, the policyholder is responsible for covering damages up to a certain dollar amount, at which point the insurance company begins coverage. Some insurance policies have an annual deductible; that is, if two insured events happen in a given year, the deductible is only applied once. Other policies have a per event deductible; that is, the deductible applies each time a claim is made. Generally, the higher one's deductible is, the less one pays in premiums on the policy.

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Deductible. A deductible is the dollar amount you must pay for healthcare, damage to your property, or any other insurable claim before your insurance company begins to cover the cost of the bill.

For example, if you have a health insurance policy with an annual $300 deductible, you have to spend $300 of your own money before your insurer will pay whatever portion of the rest of the year's bills it has agreed to cover.

However, in some types of policies, the deductible is per event, not per year. Generally speaking, the higher the deductible you agree to pay, the lower your insurance premiums tend to be. However, the deductible for certain coverage is fixed by the insurance provider. That's the case with Original Medicare.