Making health insurance affordable

Making health insurance affordable by Dennis Alexander

It seem we hear about how expensive health care system in the United States. We hear it on TV, in the news paper, from people around us. Health Insurance companies are aware that the monthly premiums and getting un-affordable for most people. Insurance companies are getting more creative and coming out with new options and plans constantly, to make it more affordable for everyone. The most important concept of determining your monthly health insurance premium is similar to with all the insurance company. The differences will depend and how efficiently insurance company is ran. Therefore if you think are just getting great deal from one insurance company you are probably giving up some benefits that you are not aware of. It could be exclusion, limitation on how much plan pays for something, deductible, co-insurance and many more very creative ways that insurance companies taking out benefits to make it more affordable. It is nearly impossible to compare plan from one company to a plan from another. Insurance companies have to compete and almost never have plan designs as the competing insurance companies in your state. For example in California Blue Cross and Blue Shield are two separate insurance companies that are competing against each other. Both Blue Cross of California and Blue Shield of California what might look like have same or similar plans. That what you might think and make your purchase decision on price alone. Most people when shopping for health insurance are only looking at deductibles and co-pays. What is going to make a big monthly price of health insurance is the plan design it self.

First is you really have to think about your past usage of your health insurance. Past references you should only use for your preventive care, things like; doctor visits and physical exams. If you are some one that does not go to a doctor that often than in most cases there is no reason for you to have a plan with a low co-pay to go to a doctor. In some cases you can have plan that does not cover doctor office visits. This way you can just pay for the visit out of your own pocket and it will run you anywhere from $55 to $65. In some cases you can have exact some plan except one would cover doctor office visits and one would not and you will same your self up $100 per month. If my math adds up, if you take a plan that does not cover doctor office visits and you will go to a doctor once per month well that�s $100(your monthly savings) minus $65(cost of a doctor office visit if you pay out of your own pocket. There you have it is a simple math. The cost of actual catastrophic health insurance is actually really cheap. It is all of those add-ons that you have with a plan that make it expensive.

Think about this if you have car insurance you know that it will only cover you if you get in a car accident. Car insurance does not pay for any �preventative� care. Car insurance does not pay for your gas, oil changes, upgrades to your car and �check-ups�. The reality is health insurance is actually inexpensive in the Untied States if you get health insurance for what it was designed for, major events. The problem with health insurance is not health insurance it is all the people that are leaving large corporate plans that did pay for everything. Well when you work for a company they either pay 100% for your health insurance or a large portion of it. Then the remainder that you have to pay they take it out of your check once every two weeks, this way it does not look that much. If you get used to the way your large company group plan worked, that the company played for, and you are out there looking for the similar plan on your own, of course it is going to be expensive.

Today�s individual health insurance plans are designed that you can get that benefits that you are going to use. With most companies you have option to pick your hospital deductible, your doctor office visit co-pay, the type of prescriptions that you might want to use(generic or brand name) and your maximum out of pocket (make sure to you know what it is when you are comparing health plans). There are few more options on how insurance companies add additional fees that are not part of your deductibles and co-pays. Some insurance companies have co-pay for emergency room visits some do not. Some insurance companies have called �daily facility fees� on to of your deductible. Keep in mind your main concern would be is catastrophic coverage. That will keep you from going bankrupt not the $55 doctor office visit. No one has ever gone bankrupt because they were not able to pay $55 out of their own pocket for the doctor visit. If you look for health insurance for what it was designed for than it is cheap. If you were looking for car insurance that covered your gas, oil changes, basic maintenance and checkups, the cost of that coverage would be astronomical. When looking at the plans all you should be concerned with is the worst case scenario that I can be out of pocket with this plan.



Dennis Alexander - leading consultant for employer group and individual/family health insurance. For any additional information and assistance with all of your health insurance needs visit our websites Blue Cross of California and Health Insurance Quotes

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