18 Surefire Tips To Lower Your Health Insurance Premium

1. The HSA Route: 

If you aren't using an HSA to save for future health care costs, you're making a mistake. Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) offer tax deductions for medical expenses. 
And by having your own family HSA in reserve you won't need to buy as comprehensive a health insurance plan (lower premiums) because you can afford to pay small costs out of your HSA.

2. Higher Deductible = Lower Costs: 

The deductible is the amount you have to pay out-of-pocket towards medical bills. So it follows that if you have a high deductible, your premiums will correspondingly fall. When you take on a higher deductible what you are actually doing is shifting some of the day-to-day medical costs from your insurance company to you. This means that your insurance premium will go down, and usually it goes down more than the increase in cost to you for your own health insurance.

Anything more than $1000 is considered a high deductible for individuals. The ideal deductible amount for you will depend on your family's ability to absorb some of the costs of your own healthcare. People, who are generally healthy, will find a high deductible plan beneficial. The plan allows you access to basic care while keeping your premiums low at the same time. But if you have a history of illness or are seriously injured, you will have to cover the deductible. So, consider the risks to your lifestyle and your medical history before you opt for a high deductible plan.

3. Health Is Wealth

This is meant literally… the healthier you keep yourself, the less you’ll have to spend on your health insurance. If you didn’t already know, many insurance companies offer lower premiums to people who lead healthy lives. 

Moreover, if you are generally healthy, your visits to the doctor are fewer so, over the life of your insurance policy your premiums will come further and further down.

The solution to "be healthy" may sound simplistic, but what most people don’t realize is that lifestyle choices can be blamed for over 90% of the diseases that affect us. 
Being obese, for example, adds $395 a year to your average $1,500 annual healthcare costs.

4. Contribute to a Flexible Spending Account

Some employers offer flexible spending plans to employees. If your employer offers that type of plan, you may be able to deposit pretax dollars in a health savings account. 

Since the contribution is taken out of your paycheck before taxes come into the picture, you can use these pretax dollars on your medical expenses whenever you want.

5. Early Bird Gets The Worm

Try to get a policy when you are still young. Why? Your medical insurance premium varies greatly depending on your age. 
So if you buy a policy at the age of 23, you’ll pay a much lower premium than say a 45-year-old person.

6. Play By The Rules

In an effort to cut costs, a number of health care providers have started making new restrictions on how your can turn in a claim. If you don't follow the rules exactly, your clim will get denied.  

So its important to know the rules for your plan before you buy. This means you must always double-check if the benefits, services or providers you need are covered under your plan before you receive treatment.

7. Don’t Stop Shopping

Just because you’ve managed to get yourself reasonable insurance doesn’t mean you stop looking for alternatives. It is very important to compare your plan with other available plans at least once a year to make sure that your plan is still competitive.

Many people make the mistake of sticking with the same insurance plan for way too long without comparing prices. This only ends up forcing you to pay too much when your company hikes its rates and you don't notice.


8. Get The Best Price Possible

When you need health insurance you are looking for the best healthcare plan, not just the cheapest. The cheapest may not always be the best. So don’t let low insurance rates fog your long-term vision. 

Understand your own individual or family needs before you zero in on a plan that’s best suited to you. Make sure to compare coverages and don't just assume that two plans with the same deductible are identical.

9. Use Available Free Services

Your health plan may offer you free health screenings and other wellness programs. Make full use of these programs along with free neighborhood screenings. 

These sorts of preventative measures, which monitor cholesterol, blood pressure, and offer free screenings, mammograms will end up saving you money in the long run because they can prevent a costly medical crisis by detecting it early.

10. Cut Your Prescription Costs

A major current political controversy is whether you should be allowed to purcahse perscription drugs from outside the US. 

The state and federal laws are in constant flux about this issue, but if there is no problem with ordering prescriptions via mail in your state, then use this option to cut your medical costs. 

You can also ask your pharmacist to recommend generic drugs that are usually less expensive than branded ones.  

While these won't directly affect your insurance premium, an overall plan to reduce healthcare costs requires that you try to save wherever you can.

11. Check Your Bills

This is one thing most people don’t bother doing – keeping a tab on the medical bills. If you aren't organized enough to keep tabs on how much each procedure cost, at least keep a running total of your medical expenses for the year.  

You may be able to deduct a variety of your medical expenses if you file an itemized return. Did you know that eligible medical expenses could include an assortment of medical aids including eyeglasses, regular healthcare services and more? 
So don’t forget to keep a careful record of such purchases so you can deduct them.

12. Bang For Your Buck

Don’t pick a health insurance policy just because it’s cheap. It may not be the right one for you. When choosing an insurance plan, you must always weigh the value of your health versus price. 

This means if you are young and healthy, then you could probably go in for a plan with lower premiums which may not offer the highest quality day-to-day care.

If you are into your middle age or older, however, you may want to pay a bit extra for a well-reputed health care insurance provider. 

The older you are the more you often (on average) you have to visit your doctor. So if that's the case, you’d probably be better off with higher premiums and lower co-pays.

13. Avoid One Too Many

Space and independence in a relationship are all very fine up to a limit. So, while it may be okay to work on your taxes separately, try to get your family under one health insurance umbrella. 

Do away with dual coverage unless absolutely necessary as it can be a strain on your financial resources. 

In almost every instance a dual or family plan is significantly cheaper than individual plans for each person.

14. Plan For Emergencies

An emergency can occur any time, and once something happens, you may not be able to check your insurance plan to know what services are covered. So make a checklist of a few things and keep it handy for emergencies:
- Names and locations of hospital(s) in your network
- Doctors' offices that are open after-hours or on weekends.
- Also make a note of the co-pay for non-regular office hour visits Ambulance services covered by your plan

15. Don’t Go Up In Smoke

If you are a smoker, you probably wonder at the inequality of the system. Both health and life insurance providers charge rates that are at least one-third more than that charged of non-smokers.

Why the premium on health care insurance? Smoking adds $230 per year to your average health care costs. Also, you are twice as likely to have a heart attack, and have a higher risk of respiratory diseases, strokes, and cancer. 

The good news is, however, that if you can quit the habit some companies will reverse the higher charges. 
All you need to do is prove that you’ve been smoke-free for more than a year.

16. Your Doctor Can Help You With Lower Prices

You can get your doctor to lower the prices of certain services and procedures. All you need to do is haggle with your doctor. 

In other words, you can negotiate a lower price on certain elective procedures. These include laser vision surgery, psychotherapy and others. 

These lower costs can be passed on to you in the form of lower deducible payments as well as in lower annual expenses that will, over time, lead to lower health care costs.

17. Get Subsidized

As our debts pile up, it may seem to get increasingly difficult to pay for important things like health insurance. The disabled, and people from lower income groups are particularly hit as they try to live from one paycheck to the next. 

This means they also go uninsured. If you face that sort of difficult situation you may be able to find help through a state or federal program like Medicaid or Medicare.

18. Piggyback Onto Mom & Dad’s Insurance

The government has finally realized that they need to be easy on the 20-somethings. These guys and girls are barely out of college and already have mountains of debt to repay. 

To counter this problem, states are now extending the time that children can be a dependent for insurance purposes.This means you need to know if you can stay on in your parents’ insurance plan for a little longer. 

Not only does your parents’ plan usually provide more coverage, it will also help you save your money for more important purchases.