>>> Health Insurance Comparison - How To Find The Best Health Insurance

Many people struggle today with the everyday task of paying for their gas in their car. Rising costs of living have also taken away hundreds of dollars a month out of the regular person's pocketbook and have made it harder to pay for essential things. There are many people that have health coverage through their workplace but many do not. Here are a few ways to do your own health insurance comparison to find the best policy for you.

Health insurance comparison companies have sprung up all over the country. Whether or not they are advertising with billboards or in newspapers, these companies are trying to garner the interest of people that are passing by or reading the local newspaper in order to get the business for their clients which can also save the consumer money as well.

The Internet is also one of the places that you will find these companies in great quantity. Whether you see them on search engines using pay per click advertising or you see them on classified websites or even websites that you visit on a regular basis in their advertising such as an e-mail account, they are there to earn money but they can also be very helpful for you if you are trying to save money on your premiums.

Take for instance the rise of the full-page ad in most advertising forms. You have a multiblock advertisement which shows similar companies that are selling similar things. They all have a way to contact them whether it be by mail or an 800 number. Why these types of advertisement are apropos to health insurance comparison advertising is that these companies will actually do the comparison shopping for you opposed to you having to call and write down all of the information. If the company is Internet-based, they will be able to send you a printout via e-mail that you can look at and decide for yourself which choice would be best for you and your family.

A word of warning regarding these companies is that some of them can be fraudulent and are just trying to take your information and sell it to other people who will bombard you with uncountable calls and e-mails selling other products that may or may not be related to this industry. Therefore, do your due diligence and make sure that the company that you are asking for help is a legitimate company that is a member of the Better Business Bureau and has no complaints against them before you decide to do business with them and access their data. With that said let's go on to a few other things.

The first thing you want to look at is the size of the company itself. This can be done by simply going to a search engine or looking in a magazine and seeing which companies have the largest advertising budget. These companies will more than likely have the lowest premiums because they have the largest subscriber base to their particular insurance.

The next thing that you would do is to go to each of the health insurance comparison companies websites in order to determine which benefit packages that they have. Most of them will have a multiple amount of packages to suit the needs of the many consumers that are looking for coverage.

Then take each one of their policies including all of their different levels of coverage and print them out so that you can see them on your kitchen table. Draw a line between the ones that look the most similar ends then circled the price points regarding the monthly fees that you will have to pay.

Now you need to consider your own needs. Consider how many times you think that you would go to the doctor and the possibility of you going in for a major medical operation. Using these factors, and the factors of your family, you can determine which one would be right for you.

The last thing that you do is look at the premiums that you will be paying and see what you will have to do in order to compensate. For instance, if you would like to go for one of the better packages, more than likely in your health insurance comparison, you will find that your premiums will be very high which means your monthly money that you have to support your family will be far less.

The final verdict on which one you pick is a juggle between what you believe your family should have and what you believe you can afford. But only by placing out on your kitchen table a printout of all of the rates and what they cover can you make a factual determination using this health insurance comparison technique.

By: Michael Kohler

>>> Low Cost Health Insurance - How To Explore Low Cost Health Insurance

Health insurance is always a touchy subject whether it's politically nowadays (especially during election time) or even with the individual who has to figure out which plan is best for themselves or their family. It's not only tougher and tougher to afford, but just as tough trying to figure out the in's, out's, and FAQ's of every different type of plan available. It can be an instant migraine, and therefore often gets avoided, causing many people the injustice of having to pay much more than they need, or can afford.

Getting low cost health insurance isn't all that simple, and for the most part we're stuck with a very limited amount of choices. However, knowing what those choices are is half the battle and can save you much more on health insurance than you might think, so it may be worth it to stop avoiding the subject and start learning about your alternatives.

In fact, at this time in your life it may be essential...

Health insurance comes in a couple of different forms. Mainly you have employer provided types of group plans (which theoretically is the cheapest that you can have due to the fact of the power in numbers theory). The other types are plans that you would have to purchase on your own if perhaps you are self-employed or not employed at all. Sometimes you may simply not be employed enough, or work for a company that provides no insurance to its employees. In this case it's up to you to cover yourself, and/or your family in case of any unforeseen emergency.

Your best chance at saving the most money on health insurance is through a previously mentioned group plan - and these are mainly provided by your employer. These usually fall into a category of an HMO (Health Maintenance Organization) or a PPO (Preferred Provider Organization). The difference in the two lies in their expense and flexibility of the physician that you choose.

HMO's are the more rigid of the two, leaving you to only choose within the network, where the PPO plan is more flexible and will allow you to choose basically whichever doctor that you prefer, just as long as they accept the insurance company that you use.

Now, in order to save on either one of these, many people will use a health savings account, which in essence is not an insurance company, but is something that you can use with either an HMO or PPO in order to enjoy a larger savings.

Another similar type to a Health Savings Account is a Health Discount Plan which has of lately grown in popularity. These again aren't actually health insurance at all, but rather a plan that let's you save on prescriptions or at physicians offices who have signed a contract to participate in the plan. Basically it's like a savings card, where you pay a nominal monthly or yearly fee, and then get to save as well on each visit to the doctor. These can usually be used either in conjunction with, or separately of your regular insurance plan.

In order to further protect you with the cost of keeping your health up is catastrophic health insurance. This is an insurance that is meant mainly for high emergency situations. In general this type of plan has a low fee to participate, but nearly always carries a very high deductible - usually around the $2,000 dollar mark. Even so, this is small in comparison to what one emergency trip to the hospital can cost you when all is said and done.

For those who are self employed and are left to have to purchase individual insurance, using all of these extra little services such as the Health Savings Account, Health Discount Plan, and/or the Catastrophic Health Insurance plan can end up saving you tons of money in the long run. Of course it's also important that you take advantage of all tax deductions that available to you as well with your insurance, where you can often deduct as much as 40% of all of your medical expenses.

Knowing your options, as well as knowing the rules of these different options can end up saving you a lot of money in the future. Even though your best and least expensive bet is a group plan through an employer - especially if you have a pre-existing condition - doing your homework can get you very good results even when you think that you're in the most dismal of situations.

By: Bruce D Hunter

>>> Save Money On Prescription Drugs

Many families who are either uninsured or under-insured face high prescription drug costs. With so many uninsured and under-insured people in the United States and the high cost of prescription drugs, you hear stories about people who have to make a decision about whether to pay for their groceries or their prescription medications. You also hear of people who cut their pills in half because they cannot afford their medications. Unfortunately, patients taking multiple medications or receiving treatment for conditions like Cancer, HIV-AIDS, Multiple Sclerosis, Rheumatoid Arthritis, and other serious illnesses may face hundreds and even thousands of dollars in prescription costs each month.

Patient Assistance Programs also known as prescription advocacy programs have been in the media recently. These programs are offered by the pharmaceutical industry to assist low income people who do not have prescription drug coverage. These programs have been in existence for the past 15-20 years; however, few people know about them. To qualify you must meet certain income requirements-generally 2 times the Federal poverty level with certain allowances for hardship cases. For more information begin your search by entering "prescription advocacy programs" or "patient assistance programs" into an internet search engine.

What if you do not qualify for a patient assistance program? How can you save money on your medications?

One thing that you can do is ask your healthcare provider to prescribe the generic version of the more expensive brand name medication. Most generic drugs are cheaper than their brand name equivalents. Both generic and brand name medications must meet the FDA's rigorous standards, so consumers can be confident that there is no discernible difference between generic and brand name drugs. According to Gary J. Buehler, Director of the Office of Generic Drugs for the FDA: "The American public can be confident that when a generic drug product is approved, it has met the rigorous standards established by the FDA with respect to identity, strength, quality, purity, and potency."

Avoid taking a new and more expensive brand name medication when an older drug is available and is equally effective. In some cases, generic drugs may prove to be safer than brand name medications. Most generic drugs have been on the market for several years, so potential side effects and problems are better known than with newer drugs. The site worstpills.org reports that there have been many more incidences of health problems associated with brand-name drugs than with the older generic drugs. Worstpills.org recommends that consumers stay away from newly launched drugs for several years to avoid this situation. For example there have been many reported serious side effects for the type 2 diabetes drug Avandia. The older drug, Glucotrol, provides equally effective blood glucose control without the serious and possibly deadly side effects of Avandia.

Do some comparison shopping. Consumers can cut their prescription drug costs by doing some comparison shopping both locally and online. Compare prices at local pharmacies, supermarkets and department stores. Also, compare different online sources as well. A study by the National Center for Policy Analysis reveals that price comparison shopping can reduce prescription costs for some common drugs up to 90%.

Consider enrolling in a discount health plan with a prescription discount card. Even if you have medical insurance, you may not have adequate prescription drug coverage. Most discount health benefit companies offer programs which include an Rx benefit. You can save up to 50% or more on your prescriptions with even larger discounts available on mail order maintenance medications.

By: Helene L Zemel

>>> Individual Health Insurance Versus Family Insurance - Which Is Better?

As an insurance customer you may have to consider which is more cost effective, an independent health insurance plan or a plan that includes your family. Individual health insurance will generally be cheaper than health insurance that must be extended to cover several individuals unless the individual in question is suffering from numerous complications. There’s still a lot of decisions to make if you go with an individual insurance plan like do you want a basic or major insurance plan, do you want to be able to pick which doctor you go to and have a more expensive plan or do you want to choose from a list of doctors available from your insurance company and see them thus having a smaller premium to pay.

However, this all changes if you have to pay for not only yourself but your dependents’ health needs. In this case it’s cheaper most times to have plans that include your dependents as four individual plans will of course, be more expensive than one plan that covers all four individuals. The more people covered under a particular insurance plan, the more expensive it will be in much the same way as the more people covered under an umbrella, the bigger the umbrella needs to be.

Of course, the more people covered under an insurance plan, the more problems you may run into in paying for the plan as smokers’ plans are more expensive than non-smokers, people with asthma or diabetes may not fall under the insurance’s payment plans as this may qualify as a preexisting condition. Gender, age and general health previously is also a large factor in determining the cost of premiums.

Family Insurance plans cover all the same things that individual plans do including x-ray and laboratory service, prescription medications, surgery, hospital stays, emergency treatment, ambulance services, dental and mental health care. However, like most insurance policies eye care services are usually not included and can be added on for a fee.

Basically the choice is entirely dependent on the make up of your family, and the decision should lie upon which would be better economically for your budget. A health care plan that caters to individual needs that may not need to be addressed by the entire family for example an asthmatic child may need special care his or her siblings may not need. Or you can purchase a health care plan that covers your entire family, smokers and alcohol consumers alike.

By: Sarah H

Health Insurance For Your Family

Family health insurance offers critical help for a family in need in these modern times fraught with uncertainty and turmoil. An unforeseen sickness, an accident, or a surgical operation can drain a family of its precious savings. Hence, it is imperative to have a family health insurance to take care of such incidents. Planning for hardships can be unpleasant, but it is important to care for our families.

Choosing a company to purchase your family health insurance policy from is a very challenging task - as challenging as selecting a new dress in a large boutique. For family health insurance packages, there are different fees, types of benefits, and levels of coverage. One of the most important factors in choosing a particular package is the monthly premium.

With certain policies, policy holders are free to choose where to receive their treatment. Also, some plans require higher deductibles that must be met before the coverage will begin. Deductibles are the amount of the covered expenses you must pay each year before the insurer starts to reimburse you. Generally, the higher the deductibles, the lower the premiums. On the other hand, some policies are based on their policy holders receiving treatment from an approved network of healthcare providers. Because this healthcare provider has agreed to provide the treatment at a pre-set price, the care will cost less for the consumer.

Family Health Insurance For Future Needs

There are many other factors to consider when choosing family health insurance policies. New babies in the family are automatically added in some policies; while some don't cater for this. Women who expect to become pregnant during their plan year must carefully study the coverage offered to them as there may be cover for the period of pregnancy but not for a new born until after a certain time period.

In fact, there are some policies offered that have to be signed for and be in existence for a few years before certain coverage, like pregnancy, are taken into consideration. Actually, this takes care of those who buy family health insurance after they've discovered that a new born baby may be on its way in about nine months time.

Actually, there is no perfect plan for anyone. Hence, an astute person has to pay the price of thorough research through several family health insurance packages to choose the right one for his family. It's profitable to carefully consider each insurance deal as one plan may seem to have a higher deductible but pays more for prescription coverage with a lower co-payment. Furthermore, the needs of each family member must be taken into consideration when making the decision on which package to signup for.

Network Of Medical Professionals

Health insurance providers offer different care options and one of the desired qualities in a service provider is that it should have a good network of health care professionals. These health insurance providers are supposed to have a wide rage of specialists that are under their networks that you can turn to. However, if you really like your present doctor, there is no reason why you should not ask him which insurance service provider his firm accepts. You might decide to purchase your insurance coverage through one of those health insurance providers.

Many insurance service providers offer various forms of health insurance plans. It is very tedious and many times confusing to compare the features of competing plans. Unfortunately, this process of due diligence is required to ensure that you choose the right plan with the right features suited to you and your family at the right price. Do your research over the Internet to get to your initial list of insurance service providers to consider for your needs. During this research phase, you will also understand and appreciate features that you will consider important to you. Contact agents from these selected insurance providers to send you their proposals based on your stated needs. Do not be afraid to clarify your doubts with these agents when you receive their proposals. It is their job to enlighten you about the various features of their proposals. Remove service providers who are unable to answer your questions convincingly or deliberately try to confuse matters, off your hit list.

When you have whittled your list down to the final shortlist, ask your family, friends and colleagues for some feedback if they have had any interactions with the health insurance service providers in your list. You may also choose to discuss your options with some trusted medical professionals.

By: Cindy Heller

>>> Health Insurance - An Umbrella For The Rainy Days

Health is wealth. This is one side of the coin. The other side is that you need wealth to recover from bad health. No one can foresee an illness and sudden medical emergencies. A person finds himself/herself in deep waters when such a contingency arises. This is because medical bills are exorbitant and paying them without insurance is next to impossible for most people. Prescription drugs, hospital bills, maternity care, etc involve considerable monetary expenditures. Many people who did not take insurance for a rainy day have landed in debt due to improper health care management. Uninsured medical care can not only be financially taxing but may also spell doom in a family. This is the reason why more and more people are opting for the protective cover of health insurance to ensure health and financial security. Health insurance helps to provide protection against the possible health problems that could happen in the future. The insured person needs to pay a 'premium' periodically.

The process of availing health insurance requires filling up of an application form. You need to provide some documentation about your finances. You can cover the health insurance needs of the entire family, including dental care, eye care, doctor visits, emergency care, prescriptions, etc.

Health insurance costs are rising day by day. It is becoming increasingly difficult for people to afford health insurance. However, it is not possible to forgo it. There are some affordable solutions. People with low income can qualify for a Medicaid program. They need to visit the local Division of Family Services office to get an application.

How to avail a cheap health insurance?

The costs of health insurance plans vary. So, a thorough research is essential before you choose a particular plan. It is a smart idea to find out how long the insurance company has been in business. Make sure that the company yo select is licensed in your state.

The medium of Internet provides a good platform to search for cheap insurance plans. You can compare numerous plans before you select one for you.

By: Darlene Kaitlin

Why You Should Consider Umbrella Insurance?

Why do you carry an umbrella? The easy answer is so that you protect yourself from the rain, right? Well, not exactly. You also carry an umbrella in case it rains, at least forward-looking people do. And business owners and professionals looking for the right insurance always have to be forward-looking, don't they?

In other words, an umbrella is an "insurance policy" in the event that weather disaster strikes you. You may have a waterproof coat on. You may be wearing rain boots. You might have even picked a route to walk on which provides you the maximum shelter from rainfall. But you'll still carry that umbrella around with you because you want to make sure you don't get soaked once the unwanted event occurs, don't you?

Well, it's not all that different when it comes to formal insurance polices. It's why they've come up with something actually called umbrella insurance. Those creative geniuses in the insurance industry have an answer and a name for everything, don't they?

To put it in the simplest terms, umbrella insurance is extra coverage you get just in case you your basic coverage runs out. So, if you have, say, professional liability coverage of up to $1 million, and a claim is made against you for $1.5 million, the umbrella portion of your coverage can kick in and prevent you from paying the full amount. Just as a real umbrella can save you from the disaster of your hair getting wet, despite the most waterproof hat on the market, good umbrella coverage will provide you with protection in case your basic coverage gets soaked, too.

There are essentially two advantages to obtaining umbrella insurance. One is that it can leave significant assets covered for a relatively small price. The other advantage is that it can simply provide you with more comprehensive coverage — above and beyond individual policies such as professional liability.

Individuals or professionals who have considerable assets that could be at risk under the threat of a lawsuit might want to consider an umbrella policy. Professional liability alone may not be enough, since the limit of that policy could only cover a certain amount of your assets. By investing in an umbrella policy that would increase the amount of your assets covered, the potential savings in the end could far outweigh the additional costs. Liability insurance is meant to protect you from the nightmare lawsuit. Umbrella insurance does just that if you have considerable assets that could be at risk.

The other thing to take into consideration is that, not only does an umbrella policy provide you with added insurance, just like a real umbrella, but it also provides you with coverage that brings together various different aspects of your specific insurance policies. In other words, this kind of policy puts under one umbrella components that would otherwise be included in separate coverage. There go those insurance experts with their clever titles again. So, a good umbrella insurance package can not only end up costing you a bit less to cover more assets, it can save you the time and effort to seek out individual policies to cover various different components of your business.

For example, instead of, say, getting one policy for professional liability, another policy for property coverage, and yet another for worker's compensation, a cleverly constructed umbrella policy can create for you elements of all of them, save you money, and leave you more widely and deeply covered than you otherwise would be. Like all good insurance policies, it leaves you prepared for when that rainy day hits. You'll have that umbrella over your head to meet that day when it comes.

Now, before coming to the conclusion that, despite all the warnings and all the concerns, you probably don't need umbrella coverage, think about some of the consequences of not getting it. For a relatively small extra investment, is it really wise to simply write off the concern and pretend that you don't have to worry about it?

Here' some food for thought. No matter how careful or good you are, and no matter how prepared you think you are to avoid mistakes and causing harm to others, there are two things you have to worry about with respect to umbrella insurance and professional liability.

The first is that you're human. You're not superman — or superwoman. As a business owner or professional, you are going to make mistakes. You don't know when or how, but being human means that they mistake can occur one way or another. And they can certainly happen in the normal conduct of your business. In fact, all that has to happen is for there to be a perception of a mistake made by someone you do business with, that causes damages, that you can still end up paying for in terms of legal fees and awarded damages.

The second thing to worry about if you don't have umbrella insurance or professional liability coverage is human nature, especially in today's environment of the frivolous lawsuit. You almost can't imagine the ways in which your business might touch others, and the ways in which someone out there may claim that the harm they suffered was as a result of something you did. You cannot possibly protect yourself from such a scenario without things like professional liability which may include added umbrella insurance. With these under your belt, you help protect yourself from the nightmare lawsuit you never dreamed of ever having to fight.

By: James Cochran