Making a Health Insurance Quote more Affordable

[11/15/06]
Insurance professionals agree that the best ways to make a health insurance quote more affordable is to select a policy with the highest deductible. But higher deductibles are not the only way to reduce premiums and make health insurance more affordable. Following are several other expert suggestions to save money while not compromising on your health or benefits.

If you have chosen an affordable health insurance quote with a high deductible, then you have likely also chosen a policy that qualifies you to open a Health Savings Account. These two things go hand in hand in reducing your overall costs of healthcare and if you have elected a higher deductible to reduce your premium, that's a great idea according to experts, but without the HSA you are missing one side of the coin. With an HSA you save by paying for eligible health expenses in pre-tax dollars. The funds you add to your HSA do not have to be spent the same year they are deposited, in fact the alternative purpose of the HSA is to not only serve as an account to pay for healthcare now, but to serve as a kind of retirement savings, when your need to pay out for healthcare can be greater. The money accumulates in your account tax free, so the fund can be used to pay future expenses. In some cases you can even reimburse yourself for out of pocket expenses that you have not paid for by withdrawing from the HAS, with money from the account when it matures upon retirement. If you leave your job, you can take your HSA with you and continue to use it, as long as you also maintain the qualifying affordable health insurance quote.

In addition to getting an affordable health insurance quote online, other ways to save money on overall healthcare include using generic drugs wherever possible. Generic drugs are just as safe and effective as their name brand counter parts, and yet can cost as much as a third less. Get to know your pharmacist and develop a good relationship with him, the more he knows about you and the medications you are taking the better he can suggest generic and other money saving alternatives. Even when a generic of a specific drug may not be available a well-informed professional pharmacist may be able to suggest a combination of generics that actually are the same formulation of the name brand drug. Use of generics to save money on healthcare in conjunction with an affordable health insurance quote, also applies to over the counter drugs. The store brand is usually on the shelf right next to the name brand OTC, and is likely made in the same factory, and yet may be as much as 50% cheaper.

Next to raising your deductible and other "out of pocket" costs like your co-pay - considering a 50/50 health insurance plan as opposed to an 80/20 for example will result in a significantly more affordable health insurance plan - the surest way to reduce your premium is to quit smoking. Smokers pay significantly higher rates than non-smokers. Also get healthy and stay healthy by reducing stress, getting more exercise and losing weight, and you will likely see an improvement not only in your health but in your wallet.

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