Unlike a standard HMO or PPO, short term health insurance is not designed to provide you with long term medical benefits. This type of insurance policy is only a short term solution until you can find something more permanent.

Short term health insurance is designed for individuals that are in a transition or between jobs. An example of someone needing short term health insurance might be a college graduate that no longer qualifies for their student health policy and needs to find something temporary or "short term" until the find a job and get a regular individual health insurance plan.

Another example of short term health insurance would be someone that is between jobs that needs medical coverage. You may have seen the short term policies offered by some temporary employment services. These policies were short term coverage and the premiums were taken out of each paycheck. This type of coverage may be expensive and not provide optimal coverage like a standard individual health insurance policy would, however as the old saying goes, "something is better than nothing" applies in this case.

If you are in a temporary situation and are in need of short term health insurance coverage you should start by getting a few free health insurance quotes online. This will give you a general idea of how much money you'll be looking at paying out each month and give you a few different policy options that you can compare before you make a final decision to buy.