Looking for low income medical insurance? You're not alone. More than 46 million Americans are uninsured and face a financial catastrophe if they experience a major illness. Here's where to get low income medical insurance so you can make sure you and your family are protected.

Government-Funded Health Care Programs

State and Federal governments have a number of health care programs created for low income individuals and families. These include:

*Medicaid - A federal program that provides comprehensive health insurance to low income individuals and families.

* High risk pools - Offered in more than 30 states, these programs provide health care for people who have been denied private health insurance or are paying excessively high premiums for health insurance.

* S-CHIP - A state and federal program that provides health insurance to children whose families don't qualify for Medicaid.

For more information about Medicaid, visit The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services at: cms.hhs.gov. For more information on state-sponsored medical insurance programs programs, visit your state's department of insurance website.

Private Health Care Plans

Private low-income medical plans include the following;

* Managed health care plans, which cover your doctor bills, hospital fees, and prescription drugs. These plans assign you to a group of doctors and hospitals. They're the least expensive comprehensive health care plans.

* Fee-for-service plans, which also cover your doctor bills, hospital fees, and prescription drugs. With these plans you can choose your own doctor, but they're much more expensive than managed health care plans.

*Catastrophic health insurance, which covers your hospital and doctor bills for catastrophic illnesses only - cancer, heart attacks, and other serious illnesses.

* Short-term major medical insurance, which provides the same coverage as major medical insurance, but for a limited period of time.

*Dental and vision insurance, which pays for dental fees and vision care costs.

* Specialized health insurance programs, which restrict your coverage to certain types of illnesses, accidents, or amounts of coverages.