Your premiums for health insurance will, to a large degree, be influenced by the size of your deductible you are willing to take. This means that you will pay more for a low deductible medical care insurance contract than you will pay for a higher deductible health insurance policy.

Your cost will be controlled by other insurance-related issues as well. These insurance-related elements include your location, your age, your gender and your health history. However, the insurance-related issues you have the most control over may be the deductible you select when getting a health care insurance contract.

Most of us know that when you get a big deductible health insurance contract, you will pay less than if you buy a small deductible medical care insurance contract. However, what most don’t know is that the increase in your cost share is not the same as the decrease in cost.

Because of this issue a moderate or high deductible health insurance contract is often a much better deal when compared to a lower deductible contract. Raising your risk by a dollar often results in a savings of greater than a dollar.

Chances are you can buy a health care insurance plan very similar to the one you currently have with a bigger deductible. If that is the case, it will be easy to compare your options.

To see if you can cut your rate without raising your risk too much, you can use the following process. First calculate the amount you will save each year with the higher deductible policy by subtracting the annual cost of your current medical insurance policy from the annual cost of the higher deductible contract. Then figure out how much additional risk will take on if you take the bigger deductible plan. Finally deduct the potential savings from amount of the potential additional risk. Call this dollar figure your “net additional risk”.

If you want to take on the net additional risk the amount, consider buying the cheaper policy. But before you do so, do the same exercise again. This time compare your current plan with a policy with an even bigger deductible medical insurance plan.

Health insurance plans that are compatible with HSAs or Health Savings Accounts are often the most cost effective policies. These plans typically have bigger deductibles and low costs. They often will pay for some preventative health expenses even if you haven’t met your deductible.

This cost-saving technique should not only be used to halve your health care insurance costs. You should also apply the same process to cut down on your premiums for car insurance and for your other personal insurance policies.

Increasing your deductible and cutting your insurance costs is a tested technique for getting your premiums lower. However, there are two things that you should take into consideration.

The first is that it is smart to save the money that you save by dropping your rates. Holding on to this money can help you in two ways. If you have expenses that are not covered by your insurance plan, some of this money can be used to cover it. If you do not have uninsured expenses, you may have a better retirement.

The second is that a deductible is not the only cost share for health care insurance. Often two policies with the same deductible may be radically different. The other major cost shares are co-insurance and copays.

When comparing health care insurance policies, it pays to look at all the insurance-related elements involved. Do not focus on the deductibles and forget about the other insurance-related factors.

As the money we spend for insurance rise, we have to get smarter and make better choices. The steps above might help you lower your costs for insurance and enhance your financial security.

Author Bio: medical insurance rates and life insurance rates can be found on the author, Alston Balkcom’s, website.

Category: Advice
Keywords: insurance tips,insurance,health,medical