When people are faced with hard times and the need to seriously cut back on spending, they look at every single place their money goes. There are however some things that are regarded as necessities and therefore are untouchable. One of these things is group health insurance. Everyone needs medical insurance and many of us believe that the best option available is group plans. However, this may or may not be the case for you. If you are healthy, you may just be able to cut your medical insurance expenditures significantly. There are numerous ways to save on this type of non-negotiable, but only for those who are healthy.
It is important to understand how group health insurance works so that you will know if it is actually your best friend or your worst enemy. Because everyone in a group must automatically be accepted into a group plan, the rates you pay are an average of what it would cost to insure everyone. Therefore if you are a very healthy person who rarely avails of the plan, you are paying for the health care premiums of others in your group who use it more regularly. If you have a chronic condition, a pre-existing condition or other health risk factors, being a member of a group health insurance plan is a great deal because you are paying much less that you would on an individual plan, if you were even eligible for one.
The healthy Florida medical insurance shopper needs to learn about medical insurance, what differentiates the various plans out there and the meaning of terms such as co-insurance, deductibles, out-of-pocket, networks and more. Group policies are often PPOs, which are great plans that offer lots of choice and coverage, however they tend to be pricey. If you can live with a little less choice in your healthcare options, a POS plan can definitely save you significant amounts of money on your premiums. You can also save tremendously by opting for catastrophic health insurance or major medical as it is also known. This protects you in case of certain serious health events, but will not cover everything. Make sure you completely understand this type of policy before choosing it.
The other major way to save on your Florida medical insurance is by making adjustments to your co-insurance rate, deductibles and out-of-pocket limits. When you have a group policy, these things are pre-set, but if you have an individual or family plan you can change them to suit your needs. A higher co-insurance rate will have you paying a higher percentage of the actual healthcare costs, but it will save on monthly premiums. Higher deductibles and out-of-pocket limits will also lower your premiums. One thing you should never adjust for the sake of premiums savings is the lifetime limit. Make sure it is high enough to adequately protect you should you get seriously ill or hurt.
The other thing that will help save you money on your individual or family medical insurance policy is to shop around for the best price. Each insurer has slightly different guidelines and therefore there can be marked differences in price from one company to another. Get as many quotes as possible to find the absolute best deal. The easiest way to do this is by using a free online quote tool designed for medical insurance quotes. Just put in your zip code, answer the questions you see there and in no time you’ll have multiple Florida medical insurance quotes to choose from.
Take your Florida medical insurance costs into your own hands and surprise yourself with the savings you’ll find there.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment