Inexpensive Health Insurance For All

I thought that we should give you some tips that we use when we are looking for inexpensive health insurance for our friends and families.

1. Shop Around – This tip, of course, is well known. But it is still good advice to heed. In today’s high volume of available data online or otherwise, there just isn’t a good excuse not to find the best deals offered. Make sure you comparison shop with many providers, not just the top three or four.

2. Group Plans – It used to be the only group health insurance plans were available from your employer. This is no longer the case. Now you can find organizations which cater to the self-employed (for example: National Association for the Self-Employed or NASE for short) or to certain demographics of society such as professional organizations or alumni associations.

3. Government Assistance – Not talking about Medicaid here. Many times the state governments will have some health insurance programs available. For instance, Arkansas, under the leadership of then Governor Mike Huckabee, instituted a program called ARKids First which covered all kids under a certain age who did not have health insurance  available to them, or whose parents couldn’t afford it. Check and see if your state has a similar program.

4. Government Programs – The federal government has started to introduce legislation to assist US citizens with their health care needs. Although no fix is in place there are some programs that make it easier to reduce the cost associated with health care. For instance you can use a Health Savings Account (HSA – this can be especially effective if you use it in conjunction with a health insurance plan) which allows you to choose a certain amount of your income to be set aside before taxes are taken out (this is known as pre-tax dollars) for the purpose of paying for health care needs. I have one and I love it. I save an additional 30% (because of the pre-tax dollars) when paying for health care needs. You should look into them, they are worth it.

5. Read The Fine Print – Make sure you look at your insurance policy options carefully because you may be able to find somewhere in the plan itself where money can be saved. Maybe you can increase your deductible a reasonable amount to decrease your overall monthly premium (and if you pair this with an HSA you will always have your deductible available to you in an emergency and will save a percentage as well) or maybe there is another option in the plan that you haven’t carefully considered that will help the pocket book.

6. Ask Questions – All health insurance providers provide assistance to help you understand the policy. It can be confusing. This is a situation where there really are no stupid questions, or at least the only stupid questions are those that go unasked. This is also important when looking for other types of insurance. Sometimes you can even get good references to other types of insurance policies by asking questions. You may even find some good life insurance leads to mitigate your risk further. Understanding your policy is key in getting inexpensive health insurance.

These are the tips we use when we are looking for the best deal on inexpensive health insurance. Follow them and you will be on the right track to finding the plan or provider you need.