Health insurance premiums have skyrocketed over the past few years, and this leaves many consumers having to choose between health insurance premiums and other expenses, including food and other monthly bills and prescriptions. Even with health insurance coverage, the co-payments can seem outrageous. It does not have to be this way, and you can cut your health insurance bills by hundreds of dollars or more each year. Employer sponsored health plans are no different. According to recent studies, the average employee will spend over eight hundred dollars per year for single health insurance coverage, and over four thousand dollars per family. This does not include any deductibles or co-pays for visits to the doctor, diagnostic tests, and prescription drugs needed. Some families may pay over ten thousand dollars a year for all of this, and that is with the employer paying part of the costs for the premiums.
Consumers can search around for health insurance savings by comparison shopping, but this can be risky. You could end up with a health insurance policy that does not protect you and your family, sacrificing crucial benefits in exchange for a few dollars worth of savings each month on premiums. A better way to see substantial savings on your health insurance policy costs is to increase your out of pocket costs. To many people this may not make sense, because they may believe that this will cost them more in the long run, but this is simply not true. A great way to do this is a health savings account, also known as an HSA. This insurance policy has a high deductible before the health insurance coverage kicks in, and this deductible amount is deducted from your paycheck in equal weekly amounts throughout the entire year. If you need to see the doctor or fill a prescription, or have any other medical costs, you use the money saved in the health savings account to cover the costs until your deductible amount is met. Once this happens then the health insurance starts to cover a percentage of the medical costs.
When you increase your out of pocket expenses, whether it is with an has or by paying for services and items instead of using your health insurance, you can see lower premium costs. A higher deductible or an has is proof to the health insurance company that the risks associated with your policy are lower, and this means lower costs to you for the health insurance policy. With a health savings account the deductions from your pay occur before any taxes are calculated, making the deductions less than they would be otherwise. Lower health insurance costs mean more money in your pocket, and who would turn that down? This will allow you to beat the high insurance costs and keep great health insurance coverage. After all, it is a proven fact that people with adequate medical care and health insurance coverage stay healthier and live longer.
