Reduce Your Personal Health Insurance Expenses

A group insurance plan, like the ones offered by an employer is the most affordable health insurance plan you can find. If you are given this choice, then you should seriously consider taking it. With this option, you can often include your spouse and children under the plan.

However, you will be on your own if you are working for yourself or for an employer who does not offer a health plan. If you are in this situation, you may have to sacrifice some options to get the most affordable coverage.

Having no health insurance is almost always never an option. You will never know when accidents or unexpected illness will strike you or your family. Perhaps the single best way of earning yourself an affordable premium is buying a managed plan under an HMO, PPO, or POS.

But despite its cost-effective advantages, managed care has suffered some media slack concerning the restrictive nature of their policies. To provide better quality service, managed care networks addressed criticisms and created plans offering more consumer choice. For example, with Prefered Provider Organization (PPO) you can mix elements of traditional indemnity insurance with HMO structure to give you more flexibility. Today, PPOs have become the most popular type of individual health insurance in the market.

Steps to Reduce Your Personal Health Insurance Expenses
Choosing managed care is not the only step you can take to reduce your expenses. You can also follow these steps:

1. Raising Your Deductible
If you are a reasonably healthy individual, there is minimum risk involved when you raise your deductible. Having an increased deductible will save you alot in premiums.

In the unfortunate event of accidents or illness, you may have to pay a higher amount out of pocket but your annual premium payment will be significantly reduced. However, if you need to frequently visit your doctor or the hospital, this option is not appropriate for you.

2. Choosing Group Health Insurance
Commonly, group health insurance plans are far more affordable compared to individual plans. If you belong to a group or club big enough to qualify for this option, then you can take advantage of the discounts offered.

3. Changing Your Health Insurance Policy
If you have a policy that covers unimportant extras, you can ask your insurance company if you can remove them from the policy and pay less.

If you do not have any need for coverage such as vision, mental, and dental health, you may have them removed from your policy at your option. This can result to lower premiums and a much affordable policy.

4. Buying Plans While You Are Healthy
This is an important step, although it may be easier said than done. Most insurance companies guaranty renewable plans and by purchasing your insurance policy while you are healthy means you can get a more affordable deal. This is the best way to make sure you have affordable health insurance later in life, when you are going to need it.

Once you have chosen a quality health insurance plan, do your best to keep it in order to avoid complications and added costs which comes with changing plans.