subject: Cheapest Health Insurance Plans, Instant Quotes, Hsa Plans [print this page] Let's talk about how do you find a health insurance plan that's the best value and the best fit for your needs. So I have eight tips here.
Tip number one is do your own research. Go online and find a site that will offer instant quotes so you can compare a number of different plans to see what fits your budget and your needs. One bit of caution here, there are websites out there that look like they're going to provide a quote, but they don't. Instead, they collect your information and then turn around and sell it to numerous insurance agents who will all start calling you so you want to be careful and avoid that.
Tip two, once you've got these quotes, I strongly encourage you to filter them and look at HSA qualified plans only. HSA qualified plans are about 40% less expensive than conventional co-pay plans. The more catastrophic plans will see higher deductibles, but the money you save with this higher deductible plan can be quite substantial and it's something you should seriously consider.
Number three, you want to do some side by side comparisons because the rates from different insurance companies within a given zip code can vary tremendously. So do a side by side comparison and one of the easiest ways is to look at just 100% plans. These are plans that after your deductible, will pay 100% of the $2 million or $5 million or whatever the lifetime limit of the policy is and by looking at just those plans, you can narrow your focus and you can see which insurance companies are offering the best rates in your area. Then if you want to see what their rate is for an 80/20 plan, you can do that as well and see which way you want to go.
Number four, once you choose a plan, you want to request an effective date this month if at all possible and that's because many insurance companies schedule their rate increases on a monthly basis or on a quarterly basis on the first of the month. If you can lock in current month rates, you may be able to save a good bit of money over the next 12 months.
Number five, if the quote includes life insurance, you want to decline that life insurance. You're always better off getting your life insurance separately through a life insurance company rather than adding it to your health insurance.
Number six, consider adding an accident plan to your high deductible plan. If accident plans have a $100.00 deductible for accidents, then that covers nearly 100% of the five or ten thousand dollars of your deductible, thus buffering your risk for any accident and they're very inexpensive to add to your coverage.
Number seven, go with an insurance agent or adviser that does an annual comprehensive policy review. Now, if they don't know what this is, just make sure that as part of their routine procedure they will re-shop your coverage for you each year. Most insurance companies will be raising your rates on a fairly frequent basis once you've had the coverage for a year or two and despite what you may have heard, the health insurance marketplace is very competitive and if you do get a rate increase, there's almost always a different company that will offer a better plan at a lower cost that you may want to switch to.
Number eight, be wary of an adviser who wants to push you to just one company or who doesn't seem to understand HSA plans or doesn't want to talk about HSA plans. HSA plans end up paying the insurance agents a much smaller commission and thus some of them may steer you away from them, even if it's not in your best interest.
So those are eight tips that can help you find a good plan that fits your needs with the best prices possible.
by: Wiley Long
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