Is the rising cost of health insurance getting you down? Don't feel alone. There are currently millions of uninsured Americans who simply can't afford to pay the outrageous premiums to get medical coverage. Fortunately, most states will step up and help low-income families cover their children at least, but what happens if mom or dad gets sick? Who's going to pay the bills than? What if the breadwinner of the family, whether it's mom or dad, is unable to work anymore and they run up large amounts of medical bills?
The system simply isn't working anymore, however, there are a few things we can do to keep our monthly premiums manageable, for those of us who can afford to make minimum payments to have a health insurance policy. Let's take a look at some of those.
There are things you can exclude from your health insurance policies that will decrease your monthly cost. This isn't the case on all policies so you'll need to look around, but it is possible to do. You should grab a few free health insurance quotes and afterward contact the agents directly. The reason I say this is so you can go into the conversation with their quote your hand. If they want your business they'll work with you to find ways to bring that number down, if possible. Get the quote first!
Another thing you might consider is to raise your deductibles. The deductible is the amount of money the insurance company expects you to pay each year before they start paying anything. An example of this would be what's called 80/20 pay. This means that you'd pay the first 20% of the of the costs of your visit to the doctor and the insurance company would cover anything after that. So if the cost was $100 for your medical needs then you would be expected to pay $20 and the insurance company would take care of the other $80. You'd only pay up to a maximum amount every year on your deductible.
Deductibles vary anywhere from zero to $5-$10,000. The higher deductible you carry on your policy, the lower your monthly payment will be, however, if you carry a high deductible this means that you will be paying a large portion of your everyday medical care out-of-pocket. If you could possibly set aside enough money that would equal your annual deductible amount you would be in very good shape because the average person only goes to the doctor once or twice a year. This would make your payments minimal, your out-of-pocket costs would be covered if you have the money set aside and you would be covered in case of any major medical emergency. Just another option to think about.
By Joe Stewart
