Friday, July 24, 2009

Affordable Health Insurance: It Really Does Exist

You don't have to give up an arm - or a leg - to find affordable medical insurance. All you need is some solid advice on how to locate affordable medical insurance and how to reduce your expenses.

Finding affordable medical plans may seem like searching for the pot of gold at the end of a rainbow - a nice little fantasy. Most health insurance companies aren't exactly advertising low, low savings and unbelievable deals. The good news is that it is possible to obtain affordable medical insurance coverage. All you need is these tips and a good health care policy search engine.

Widen your search

The first step in any comparison shopping is to look at as many of your options as possible. When looking for affordable individual medical insurance or group medical insurance plan, that means comparing all the plans available to you. If you only compare 5 or 6 plans, you could be missing out on the best deal for your budget.

Using an online health insurance search engine

An excellent, and easy, way to search for affordable medical insurance plans is to use one of the health insurance coverage search engines (www.BestHealthcareRates.com) widely available online. These search engines are free to use, and give you instant access to an enormous database of available private medical insurance policies. You can limit your search according to the criteria that fits your situation.

Healthcare insurance rate search engines are great because there's no confusing jargon, no phone calls to make and you don't have to wade through dozens of health insurance websites or brochures. All of the pertinent information is laid out for you side-by-side in a format that makes comparisons simple.

Raise your deductible

One way to make your medical insurance more affordable is to raise your deductible. A deductible is the amount of money you have to pay (say $500) before your insurance policy kicks in and starts contributing. For healthy individuals, a higher deductible is a promising option that will result in much lower annual premiums. However, for individuals who are ill or make lots of hospital visits, a higher deductible won't be a good choice.

Secure a medical insurance policy while you're healthy

We can't always control our health, but we can control when we purchase our health insurance. To get more affordable health coverage, secure a policy while you're in good health. For obvious reasons, insurance companies are willing to give less expensive plans to those who are less likely to need much medical treatment.

Nix the unnecessary extras

Take a close look at everything that your health insurance policy covers. Are there areas of coverage you're very unlikely to need? For example, if no one in your family wears glasses or contacts, you may not need vision coverage. Just be sure to go through the policy carefully and cut away at unnecessary extras with a scalpel and not a hatchet. You don't want to get so caught up in saving money that you eliminate services you're likely to need.

Tax-free savings account

A tax-free savings account allows you to deposit pre-tax income into an account that you can draw from to pay expenses that your health insurance policy doesn't cover. These are referred to as health savings accounts, HSA for short. You save a bit of money by reducing the amount of taxable income you bring in.

This really just scratches the surface of ways that you can secure affordable medical insurance. So don't get discouraged by all the talk of health insurance costing a small fortune. If you're a savvy shopper and utilize the convenient online tools available to you, you can find affordable medical insurance.

For more information and to find your low cost medical insurance plan visit www.BestHealthcareRates.com Today!

Posted via web from besthealthcarerates's posterous

1 comment:

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