Everyone in the country is on the look-out for cheap health insurance, and many people think the very idea is nothing but an illusion. There are ways, however, of lowering the cost of health insurance and health care in general, and almost everyone can save money if they take advantage of a few simple tips.
The first two tips are probably the most difficult for many people: quit smoking and lose weight.
There's no way around the fact that smokers and people who use chew are going to pay more for their health insurance. That's simply a fact of life. If you are serious about needing cheap health insurance then you're going to have to be equally as serious about protecting your health - and that means quitting smoking and giving up chew.
Similarly, if you are overweight you won't get the best price on your health insurance. Losing weight can be more difficult than quitting smoking, but every pound you manage to shed could end up saving you money in the long run - plus you are going to look and feel better for it.
Along those lines you need to cut out fast foods and, especially, all fried foods. This can seem impossible at first, but really it's not as hard as you might think. Start cutting back today.
Start taking vitamins and eating healthier. Add fish and fruits and vegetables into your diet. Again, this won't be as hard as you might think.
Get some exercise. Walk around your block a couple of time three days a week. Ride a bike to do errands. Join a group that walks around the mall in the mornings. In other words, you probably don't have much of an excuse not to get at least a little exercise each week.
Pay your premiums automatically each month out of your bank account.
Don't engage in extreme sports or other dangerous activities. Drive a sensible car - yes, driving a flashy sports car can increase your health insurance costs.
Individual health care is astronomically expensive. Find a group health care plan that you can join. If there isn't a plan where you work then check with any clubs or organizations or associations or any other groups that you belong to. You would be amazed at the number of groups that are offering their members group health insurance. If you don't belong to any organizations that offer group health insurance, maybe a friend or relative does - ask if you can join.
One of the cheapest health insurance plans is what is known as an HSA - or Health Savings Account. A health savings account is a special tax-free savings account that can only be used to pay for medical-related items such as doctor's bills, lab bills, medications and so forth. As part of your tax-free savings account you will be required to pay for a low-cost high deductible health insurance. For an individual this health insurance will have a deductible of about $1,100 and for a family the deductible will be approximately $2,200.
Obviously this insurance won't pay anything for your routine medical costs each year (you will pay for those using the tax-free money in your HSA account). What this insurance does is it protects your home and other assets if you should have a catastrophic incident where you suddenly incur medical bills in the tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars.
You can find out more about HSAs from your bank, credit union, insurance company or at your place of work.
If you are still interested in opting for more traditional health insurance, but you need to get it at the lowest price possible, then you'll want to check out some of the health insurance price comparison websites.
One of the things you don't want to do is to rely on the prices from just one of these sites. Each site only compares a tiny handful of insurance companies so if you really want to see all of the prices you can find you'll have to take the time to make your comparisons on at least 3 different sites.
But once you've finished making all of your price comparisons then the fun begins. Simply choose the lowest-price policy you find and that's it. You have found the lowest price for health insurance that you can find in your state.
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