How to Lower Your Health Insurance Premiums
Your health insurance premiums are probably too high. But did you know that there’s a way to lower them?
In this post, we’ll go over some ways that you can lower your health insurance premiums, and help get rid of medical debt. Now is the time to make changes!
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And now, onto the article!
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The Most Common Causes of Health Insurance Costs: List
These are some common causes of health insurance costs that you may not have realized. Don't stress about these problems too much; you can save money on your health insurance premiums by dealing with them preemptively.
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#What to Do for Free
If you're worried about your premiums increasing — even if you don't have any of the problems highlighted in this article — there are a few things to do that can lower your insurance premiums. They are:
1) To reduce your medical bills, take advantage of every service offered by your insurance company. This can save you a lot of money in health care costs. You should call up and ask what their services are and how much it costs. Ask them if they have a referral for anything specific, like bathing or dental care (dentists are expensive).
2) Look into "consumer-directed" health plans. This is when you pay for health care expenses directly out of pocket, rather than through insurance costs. The quality of care will vary, but they cost much less. You can find more information on these plans in the "Government Resources" section at the end of this article.
3) Watch your weight and eat healthy food. If you're overweight, reducing your weight could lower your medical expenses in the long run because being overweight makes it more likely that a disease will develop (obesity is a risk factor for heart disease). Having healthy habits such as low fat and low sugar diets will also help lower your health care costs.
4) Get an exercise plan. You don't need to work out for hours every day — half an hour a day can be extremely beneficial. Simply walking 30 minutes per day lowers the risk of heart disease, which is one of the top causes of costly health care.
5) Lower your stress level. Stress is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease, and other serious illnesses. You can reduce your stress levels by taking time off to do something you enjoy, having low-stress hobbies such as knitting or reading, and spending time with people you like.
6) Take care of your health immediately when a problem arises. If a disease is early in its progression, you could take care of it before it becomes too late.
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#Why Your Health Insurance Costs Are High
After reading this article, you may be surprised to see how much your health insurance costs. Why is this so? It's because there are a few different things that are contributing to the high costs of health insurance — and most of them are pretty uncommon. The biggest reasons why health insurance premiums are high is that:
1) You're an unhealthy person. You probably know this already, but the sad truth is that healthy people pay less for their medical expenses than those who aren't. You're less likely to get sick, and you're going to have fewer medical expenses than your sick family members (your parents, siblings, cousins). So why do healthy people pay so much for health insurance? Well, that's a lot of the reason.
2) You live in a high-risk area. The premiums in a high-risk area are typically higher than elsewhere in the country. Two out of every three uninsured Americans live in one of the 50 highest risk counties in America — these include Los Angeles and San Francisco. If your city is one of the top high-risk areas, your health insurance premiums will naturally be more expensive.
3) Your state has high health insurance premiums. Twenty states have the highest health insurance premiums in the US — they are Alaska, Alabama, Delaware, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, West Virginia and Wyoming (along with Puerto Rico). These states all have some sort of problem that raises their premium (for example: Alaska has a very high drug addiction rate).
4) You're a woman. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation and PBS News Hour , women pay more than men for health care services.
5) You're a smoker and/or obese. Smokers, in general, have higher health care costs than non-smokers. Smokers who develop lung cancer can cost the health care system thousands of dollars a year because these people will need to be treated for this disease. If you're obese, you're more likely to develop heart disease and other diseases that cost a lot of money.
6) You have excessive medical bills every year. This isn't really your fault: some people just go to the doctor a lot. But if you consistently have high medical bills every year, then these costs can add up over time, and increase your premiums (or make it harder for you to find health insurance).
7) You're having a baby. Pregnancy costs the health care system an extreme amount of money — because this time of life is when women have the lowest medical bills. If you have a child, it's going to cost your insurance company a lot more money.
8) You have a preexisting condition such as asthma, diabetes, cancer or AIDS. Insurance companies are unlikely to cover conditions they consider "pre-existing": things that existed before you applied for insurance.
9) You don't use preventative care and/or control your health care costs. This is because preventative medicine (such as mammograms, flu shots and colonoscopies) can help lower your ultimate health care costs.
Conclusion
By now, you should have an idea of why your health insurance costs so much. Health insurance tends to cost more money for healthy people: this is unfortunate because it means that you have to pay more than someone who isn't as healthy. Fortunately, there are some things that you can do to lower your health insurance costs — and I covered them above (watch two movies a week, stop smoking and lose weight). I hope this article was helpful and informative for you — if there's anything else you would like me to cover in the future (or any questions), feel free to leave a comment below!
Best Wishes,
Mary Ann Seiler
Founder of World Health Benefits .