What is an insurance policy or group number?

Whats the difference between insurance policy number and group number?

• I'm filling out college insurance stuff and I'm lost... Id really appreciate the help :)

• Answer:

  The group number identifies which plan you are on. My husband and I both have the same company through our employers, but are on different plans. He works for a comparatively small company which had to choose between standard plans that the insurance company put together to suit the needs of most people. I work for a much larger company that could put together its own plan based upon what they wanted for their employees. Therefore, our plans are entirely different group numbers and entirely different plans. Our plan numbers have numbers only and are 5 digits long. The policy number identifies each insured individually. We have both numbers and letters in our policy numbers. Our policy numbers are 12 digits long and happen to appear right below our names on the card. Yours could be different from ours. However, your individual policy number is likely to be much longer than group number. There could also be other numbers on your card. If you do not have group insurance through the employer of one of your parents, your card might possibly not have a group number on it. I would think that the long number is your policy number.