Tips For Lowering Your Individual Health Insurance Costs

Are you currently looking for an affordable individual health insurance plan? Well, good luck. I don't mean to be a pessimist but the cost of health insurance, even for an individual, has gone out of sight over the past few years. I was speaking to a family member recently and they told me that they were paying over $300.00 per month just for an individual health plan.

There are some things that you may be able to do in order to bring those premium payments down, however, you'll need to decide in the end if these would be in your best interest or not.

The first thing that you could do is to cut down on your coverage. This means getting the least expensive policy available and raising your deductible higher. This will mean that you'll likely be paying for all of your doctor visits out of your own pocket, but you should be covered for any unexpected accidents or any long term hospitalization costs, minus your deductible. This might be a feasible option if you think about it. Example, if your current deductible is $250.00 and your premium payments are costing you $300.00 per month then you can probably reduce your monthly costs by half or more by raising your deductible up to $2,500 or even $5,000. I know, I know. Nobody wants to pay that much out of pocket, however, let's look at another example.

The average person only visits the doctor twice a year, once for a check-up and once for illness. If you figure the cost of those two visits combined to be in the range of $300-400.00, depending on what has to be taken care of, then you could potentially save a lot by raising your deductible. Look at the numbers. If you were able to cut your premium in half by raising your deductible then you're saving $150.00 per month or $1,800 per year. If you only payed $400.00 out of pocket then you've saved yourself $1,400 over the course of twelve months and you'll still be covered for emergency care. The key to making this work is to put money in savings until you've saved a few hundred dollars and then leave it there specifically for doctor visits alone. This is only one option for you to consider when you get ready to purchase an individual health insurance plan.

Low Cost Health Insurance - Is There An Alternative To Health Insurance?

Have you been searching for low cost health insurance but don't know where to turn? You're not alone, there are now millions of people without health insurance here in the United States. The situation is completely unacceptable as far as I'm concern, however, I'm only one voice and my one voice only carries so far. There are ways that you can lower your health insurance costs, one of which is by raising your annual deductible to a higher level. Let me explain how this works.

By raising your annual deductible you'll still have substantial coverage towards any hospitalization costs, but it means that you'll probably be paying the majority of your doctor visits out-of-pocket. Most people only see the doctor once or twice a year and even then, most of the time it's for sickness not injury so you'd be looking at possibly only paying the cost of two doctor visits, plus the cost of prescriptions, if any. Of course, this is assuming that you're an individual. A family of four might be a little bit more difficult to provide for out-of-pocket.

There are now also health insurance alternatives that are similar to dental discount plans. These plans are not health insurance, but offer discounted rates from regular doctors fees by paying cash at the time of the visit. Although I have heard of these and know that some people are doing well with them, I'm not completely educated on these yet. I know that they work out well for some people that are uninsurable. If a person is uninsurable then doesn't matter what the cost is in the first place because they can't get it. Any type of a discount on health care at that point would be wonderful. It's just something else to keep in mind if you're in need of low-cost health insurance and are unable to find it.

I highly recommend that you take advantage of some of the free health insurance quotes that are available on the Internet. You might come across a low cost health insurance plan that fits in your budget after all.