Shopping for health insurance plans? Here are some things you need to know.

July 23, 2009 by DanD
Filed under Health Insurance

There are certain things that you’ll want to keep in mind if you find yourself in the position of shopping for an individual or family health insurance policy. It doesn’t matter if you are coming out of employment that covered you and your family, or are you are at the end of your COBRA benefits, or you simply have never had insurance health coverage before. To get family health insurance on yourself and the members of your family there are things you need to know and things you can do.

The first thing to understand is that if you have the opportunity for getting group health insurance, whether through a job, union or an association you’re a member of, that is usually much more cost effective than buying individual or family health insurance on your own. Basically, you need to figure out your health insurance goals; in other words, what are your needs? If you’re young, have no health issues, no dependents and not jumping out of airplanes for sport next week, you may want to opt for a policy that covers only the catastrophes, and cover the rest out-of-pocket. Then again, if you’re the main bread winner and have a family to support, that makes things a little different.

The basic choices you’ll have are Fee-for-Service, Managed Care Plans, and Association-based health insurance. Fee-for-service is the traditional indemnity plan, private health insurance. This is usually harder to qualify for and more expensive. But it could be the best possible coverage. Managed Care plans include most PPO’s and HMO’s. These offer lower costs than private health insurance but your choices are somewhat limited. Another way to get insured is through a group, union or association of which you may already be a member. Such professional, religious or trade organizations may offer a better rate. Often they may offer a low cost health insurance plan. Look into it! Sometimes you can find some great coverage at affordable rates.

Some things to think about when you’re looking for health insurance quotes are what’s covered on this plan, how much are the monthly premiums, what is the deductible, what is the annual out-of-pocket, does it cover preventative medicine, how about vision and dental, how much are co-pays for office visits? And I’m sure you can come up with many of your own.

Sit down before you go shopping for your health insurance quotes and make a list of your needs and wants, and decide in advance what you’re willing to pay to get the health insurance plan you want. A caution here, once you start getting health insurance quotes they can vary as much as 50% for the same person! Remember, you’re gathering information, and there is no obligation for you do anything. If one insurer isn’t showing you what you want, move on to to the next.

Get all the information you can. There are plenty of sites on the internet that specialize in finding the best insurer for you. There are websites that have many articles and offer free, no-obligation insurance quotes from several insurance providers making them compete for your business.

If you’re new at shopping for low cost health insurance and don’t have good referrals from friends or family, it may be wise to use a broker who represents several companies. He or she will be more likely to find the best policy for you, as opposed to selling the company they work for even if his or her plans cost more or has less coverage.

Shopping for health insurance plans can be frustrating and time-consuming. But if you do your homework and come armed with the information needed to find the best rates, you’ll be able to wade through this very competitive and ever-changing field.