Health insurance is generally considered one of the least affordable of all the types of insurance that the average America is expected to purchase. In fact, approximately 17% of all Florida residents can’t afford any health coverage at all.
Group health insurance is almost always less expensive than individual health care so if your employer or some organization that you belong to makes group health insurance available to you that may be your best bet.
If you have no insurance and you meet certain low-income requirements then your children 19 years of age and younger may qualify for the state of Florida’s KidCare Program. For more information on this state-sponsored program check out: http://www.floridakidcare.org/
If you have a home business check with your insurance agent. Many home-based businesses in Florida, regardless of whether they have any employees or not, qualify for group rate health insurance.
If you are still looking for individual health insurance there may be ways of getting the cost of your policy down to the point that it doesn’t make you sick.
Let’s start with your smoking. If you smoke or use any other form of tobacco product (such as chew) then you need to quit. Period. Smokers pay a considerably higher rate for health insurance than do non-smokers. If you have a health insurance policy currently and you smoked when you first got your policy but you have since quit you need to speak with your agent – you could be due a rather heft decrease in your monthly premium payments!
Are you overweight? Even though the majority of Americans are overweight it still costs overweight people more to purchase health insurance than it does for people who fall within the “normal” range on the weight charts. The good news is you don’t have to lose all of your weight to get a break on your health insurance. Often even losing just a little will place you in a lower-priced category and save you money year after year.
Don’t engage in dangerous or extreme sports or hobbies. Unnecessarily placing your life or your health at risk will drive up the cost of your health insurance. Having a dangerous occupation can also increase the cost of your health insurance.
If you’ve been insured by the same company for at least 5 years you could be entitled to a Long-Term Discount on your health insurance. Similarly if you have other insurance policies, such as homeowner’s or auto insurance with the same company you should receive a Multi-Policy Discount on your health policy.
What is your current co-pay when you visit your doctor’s office? Many people have a 20% or 25% co-pay. Did you know that if you increase your co-pay to 50% that you can save as much as 20% on your monthly health insurance premiums? This is a particularly good way for people who do not visit their doctor on a regular basis to save a great deal of money every year.
What about your deductible? Your deductible is the amount of money you spend on your own health care each year before you even bother your insurance company. The higher your deductible the lower your monthly premium payment will be – but consider everything carefully before increasing your deductible because this is extra money you will have to come up with each year for your own health care.
Finally its time to go online and take everything you’ve learned in this article and plug it into at least 3 of the many websites that allow you to quickly make head-to-head comparisons of health insurance policies and prices between companies.
Remember to make your comparisons on at least 3 different sites if you want to make certain that the low price you see is truly the lowest price you can get. It takes a little extra time to make comparisons on multiple websites, but the result is that you really will save money and get discount health insurance in Florida.