Top 14 Ways To Lower Your Health Insurance Costs

top ways to lower your health insurance costs

According to recent studies, researchers indicate that health care costs are increasing every year and a lot of people don’t know about the options that are available for saving money on their health insurance. While there are several Obamacare exemptions for certain situations, for the most part, most American citizens will need health insurance in the coming years. In fact, there are a lot of ways to lower your health insurance costs, or at least help you prevent those costs from going up. From the site VKool.com, I made this article to show you 14 tips and advice from experts for saving money on health insurance to help balance your budget.

Discover 14 Ways To Lower Your Health Insurance Costs

1. Raise Your Deductible

What is the first thing you do when you want to save money on homeowners or car insurance? Raising the deductible is the simplest and easiest way you can do to lower your costs of homeowners or car insurance. You can also use this way with your health insurance. The deductible is an amount of money you must pay out of pocket for your health care before the health insurance kicks in.

In case you opt for a higher deductible, health insurance companies reward you with a lower premium. For instance, if a healthy, 40-year-old woman increases her deductible from about $500 to roughly $1,500, she can save about $1,428/year. Experts recommend that you should only increase your deductible to a level, which will not ruin you if you must pay it. To know how increasing your deductible can lower your premium, you should try shopping online.

2. Open A Health Savings Account

 

Open A Health Savings Account

I believe that not many people seem to know about HSA – health savings accounts. Health savings account is which you will get when you open a health plan with the high deductible. Health savings accounts are less hassle and more lucrative than flexible spending accounts. A HSA is considered as a tax-free account that you can use to pay for your health care costs. Nevertheless, unlike a flexible spending account, you do not need to guess how much money you can spend on your health care and you do not have to forfeit the money if you guessed wrong. Instead, health savings accounts roll over from year to year, so you are able to take them with you when changing employers. In addition, you can also cash in your health savings account for any use after the age of 65, so if you are a fortunate health-wise, maybe you will spend money on something else someday.

If you are looking for other easy ways to lower your health insurance, Bend the Healthcare Trend is the best guide you should read.

3. Join A Professional Association (Farm Bureau)

join a professional association review

Joining a professional association is one of good ways to lower your health insurance costs. You should know that there are other group plans that you can join in rather than through your workplace. For instance, you can join your nation’s Farm Bureau to get a group rate on health insurance (even you do not have to be a farmer). If you belong to any professional association or could join any professional association – that is often another way to get group health insurances. In addition, some credit card companies are offering an access to health insurance coverage, so you should begin loving your credit card company.

Learn more: Credit Repair Magic course – this course will help you increase their credit score easily

4. Price Individual Health Insurance

price individual health insurance review

For folks with health problems, joining a group plan may be a key; however, if you are healthy and young, it is always cheaper to buy individual health insurance rather than having it through your employers. The reason is that work plans must accept everyone, so the insurance companies will price it to cover that risk. For example, my friend discovered that she could have a private policy for herself for roughly $115 per month, whereas adding herself into her husband’s work plan was about $350 per month. Therefore, she saved herself about $235 per month, and $2,000 per year.

If you are looking for other easy ways to lower your health insurance, Bend the Healthcare Trend is the best guide you should read.

5. Shop With An Independent Agent

shop with an independent agent review

One of other ways to lower your health insurance costs is shopping with an independent agent. The independent agent has an access to different health insurance companies, so it is like shopping around, but just with an easy phone call. In addition, the price differences between some big reputable health insurance companies for the same coverage may be dramatic.

For example, a woman asked some independent agents to shop around for her big family with 2 adults and 7 kids, and she found that she could save $6,756 per year by switching to a different health insurance company.

6. Stop Smoking

stop smoking review

One of easy ways to lower your health insurance costs is to stop smoking. The health care reform alters insurance landscape by not letting insurers use health conditions or gender for pricing. However, they still charge more to smokers (up to 50 % more for the same plan).

Learn more: Painless Stop Smoking Cure review – this review shows you the best way to stop smoking easily and quickly.

7. Change Your Co-Insurance Ratio

Co-insurance ratio is known as an amount of money you will pay after meeting your deductible. Actually, a common ratio will be a ratio of 80/20. In other words, after you have to pay your deductible toward healthcare expenses, the insurer will pay 80 % of the bill and you will pay 20 %. If you change this ratio (it means you will pay more), you will have a lower health insurance premium. This way is similar to raising your deductible, so you need to weigh the costs versus risks.

If you are looking for other easy ways to lower your health insurance, Bend the Healthcare Trend is the best guide you should read.

8. Choose An In-Network Doctor

choose an in-network doctor review

Choosing an in-network doctor is another way you can choose from. You will be happy with your choice of doctors when researching your plan options. You will be looking at benefits and costs, but do not forget to look at your plan’s provider network. In case your favorite doctors do not participate in your plan, you can face out-of-network charges.

9. Trade Up Group Health Insurance Plans

group health insurance plans review

If both your spouse and you have group health insurance plans that are available through work, you should calculate which one could cover both your needs with the lowest cost. For a few people, group rates may not offer the best value; however, an individual family plan may offer a cheaper option.

10. Regularly Assess Your Health Insurance Needs

Maybe you are missing savings simply because you have stuck with the same plan year after year whilst your situation has changed. Dr. Laden says, “You should periodically reassess your insurance needs.” He also says, “Things you should think about include: Do you have children that go to the doctor often? Do you take a lot of prescription drugs? Are tax breaks important to you? Are you willing to assume the cost of routine health in exchange for much lower premiums?”

If you are looking for other easy ways to lower your health insurance, Bend the Healthcare Trend is the best guide you should read.

11. Do Not Miss Out On Subsidies

do not miss out on subsidies review

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) identifies the income levels at which you are eligible for a premium subsidy. Therefore, you only can get the subsidies by purchasing a plan through your nation’s health insurance marketplace, and then the subsidies will come in the form of tax credits.

12. Lobby For Health Insurance Savings At Work

In case you purchase a group health plan through work, you can think you are stuck with anything that is offered each year. However, employees, especially employees in smaller companies, may gather for better coverage options. There are a lot of optional benefits, which are tacked on to your group health plans, and which are causing your group rate to skyrocket. You should ask your employer drop some coverage options at renewal time if you and your co-workers agree that they are unnecessary (for example, infertility treatment).

13. Get Regular Checkups

get regular checkups review

Jessica Banthin, a healthcare expert says that people do not skimp on well-child checkups only to save money. These checkups or exams are fully covered by insurance or are usually inexpensive, and they will help your doctor spot health problems early. In addition, routine vaccines will help lower your children’s risk of illness as well as your risk of facing with high medical bills.

If you are looking for other easy ways to lower your health insurance, Bend the Healthcare Trend is the best guide you should read.

14. Get Healthy And Stay Healthy

Get healthy and stay healthy

You should keep a healthy lifestyle involving wearing seat belts when driving, stopping smoking, exercising, and keeping a healthy weight.

(Learn more: The Healthy Way Diet Program review – this review shows you the best diet program for maintaining a healthy weight.)

This can help decrease your healthcare costs. Interestingly, it will also help you reduce your health insurance premiums.

Almost employers are providing financial incentives for employees to keep them healthy. By taking part in your company’s wellness program, maybe you will save money on your share of the premium costs as well as improve your overall heath. In addition, you can consider some other ways to lower your health insurance costs such as:

  • Shopping for the best plan
  • Lowering your health insurance premiums through a premium tax credit
  • Qualifying for help with out-of-pocket costs
  • Getting coverage at no-cost or low level to you through a government program
  • Always having a safety net

Recommended reading: 28 Healthy Ways To Live Longer And Feel Better

To see other articles about money saving tips and advice, go to our main Lifestyle page.

After reading my overview of 14 ways to lower your health insurance costs, I hope that it helps you choose the best way that will save you more money. This post is part of a series about tips and advice on saving money. Got a question? Need answers? Leave a comment below. Now are you ready to try using some of these ways to save money on health insurance?

If you are looking for other easy ways to lower your health insurance, Bend the Healthcare Trend is the best guide you should read.

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