Shopping for the Best Health Insurance

insure123 — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:05:00 +0000

Most often when we think about the best rates for individual health insurance plans we think of finding and paying the cheapest premiums available. This sometimes misses the point of having insurance, which is to provide you and your assets with the most cost efficient and effective protection available. In reality, the best rates for individual health insurance plans are for policies that supply sufficient and satisfactory coverage at the lowest rate. When comparing health insurance options, it is best to first evaluate your situation. Asses exactly what you need and want from individual health insurance coverage before trying to find the cheapest rates. Consider the following six factors when comparing health insurance plans and whether or not they are suited to your individual situation:

• Is your preferred physician in your health plan’s coverage network? If not, you may need to make a tradeoff between a lower premium and access to your favorite doctor. Or make a point of only applying for plans with providers that offer you access your preferred physician.

• How often do you make office visits? For people that visit their doctors often, policies that discount office visits (through copayments) are a good idea even though these plans tend to have higher premiums. You may still pay less in the long run if the money you save with copayments outweighs the extra cost of a higher monthly premium.

• What types of doctors do you see? Some of the cheapest individual health plans are HMOs; however, they require referrals if you need to see a specialist. This can be an obstacle to getting the medical care that you want. So it might be best to consider other plan types, such as PPOs.

• Does your plan offer prescription drug coverage? Without help from health insurance, prescription drug costs can burden you with large medical bills. If you rely on prescription drugs, you need to consider paying a higher premium for prescription drug coverage, which will minimize your total healthcare expenditures.

• Do you have pre-existing conditions that need to be covered through your health insurance plan? Whether or not your condition will be covered by a health plan may not be easily discernable from websites that offer health insurance quotes online. If you’re in this position, it is best to contact a company that offers both live assistance with comparing health insurance as well as online quotes.

• Prepare for the worst: evaluate the coverage limits of individual health plans. You may be covered but not fully covered. If the cost of a catastrophic hospital trip or other excessive medical care expense exceeds your policy’s limit, you and your assets are no longer protected. The cheapest individual health plans will make you pay more before your insurance kicks in and also limit the amount of financial damage that the insurance company is willing to cover, and this can mean more exposure than you’re willing to deal with.

Now that you know some of the most important aspects of comparing health insurance, you can focus on the price. Keep in mind that companies offering individual health plans are highly competitive. Chances are they have done their homework and have developed a plan that fits your specific needs fairly well, but in doing so they have developed many other plans to suit other people’s needs. Make sure you sift through the multitude of health insurance quotes carefully. Premiums are not the be all and end all when comparing health insurance.