Five Ways To Save On Healthcare Insurance Costs

Posted by Hank Coleman on Feb 24, 2011

Understand ways to save on health insurance Health insurance costs have skyrocketed over the past several decades with the rise of healthcare as a whole. Citizens and corporations in America spent over $2.3 trillion on healthcare costs in 2008. That is over three times what was spent on the same care in 1990 when the costs were $714 billion per year. That equates to a 6.35% annual increase in healthcare related costs. One of the best defenses to battle the rising healthcare costs is by purchasing healthcare insurance. But, there are a few ways that consumers can save on health insurance costs.

Negotiate Your Health Costs With Your Doctor

If you have raised your deductible on your health insurance to reduce your health insurance costs, you should tell your doctor that you are paying more of your medical bills out of your own pocket for routine care. Be up front with your doctor and tell him or her that you want to shopping around for the best deals in your local area for medical services. Ask your doctor which are the best hospitals or referral clinics to go to. Find out which ones work with people who are paying out of their own pocket for the small procedures and routine healthcare. Do not be afraid to have a direct conversation with managers in the hospital or medial facility’s finance department. If you can find out prices at several competing local hospitals for a procedure you need, you may save money on your medical bills by playing on hospital against another. You may even be able to negotiate a discount through the hospital if you promise to make a prompt payment or a payment in cash for your healthcare. All of these tactics can help you save on your healthcare insurance costs for the big ticket items that you may eventually really need help from the health insurance company in paying.

Get As Healthy As You Can

It seems very intuitive that if you are healthier, than you will play in lower health insurance costs. You already know this, but losing weight or if you quitting smoking will greatly reduce the amount of visits that you take every year to the doctor. This can also drastically cut your health insurance costs as well. When you become healthier, you can ask your health insurance company to lower you rates. You may have to take a physical or fitness test, but the costs savings can be well worth the trouble. According to the National Business Group on Health, more than 70% of all employers currently offer or have plans to offer financial incentives to employees who make healthy lifestyle changes such as going to the gym or losing weight.

Check Your Employer’s Other Health Insurance Option

According to Hewitt Associates, almost 60% of all American employers offer at least two health insurance plan options to their employees. If you do not like one of the plans offered by your work or if it does not meet your healthcare needs, you may want to consider checking out the other options available to you right at your own employer. Many employees set their healthcare insurance plan options when they started working at the company and have never changed their coverage in years. You should reassess your family’s healthcare insurance needs each year.

Shop Around For Health Insurance?

Like car insurance and home insurance, consumers should not settle for the first health insurance plan that is offered to them. Employees should not just blindly accept the health insurance plan that is offered through their work. While many employers plans and group plans offer an excellent value, you may be able to find better or cheaper coverage somewhere else in the open market with options that suit you and your family’s healthcare needs.

Increase The Amount You Pay Out Of Pocket

The true reason to have insurance in our lives is to protect us from the big events, the catastrophes in our lives that could reap financial devastation on us and our families because of their huge costs. Far too many people rush to the doctor office for minor ailments because their insurance covers the doctor’s visit. This way of thinking actually increases healthcare insurance costs for all families as an insurance company has to raise everyone’s premiums slightly to compensate. Consider raising your health insurance’s co-pay and self-insure a little more with a healthy emergency fund. Doing this will greatly reduce your healthcare insurance costs. The more you pay your doctors out of your own pocket will result in a reduced insurance premium.

There are plenty of ways to reduce your healthcare insurance costs. You just need to be a little creative in order to save money on health insurance.

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