How to find affordable health insurance

Are you doing everything that you can to find affordable health insurance? Are you drowning in medical bills? Are you one of the numerous people in the United States that is currently uninsured and are looking for coverage?

According to a recent survey one of the biggest concerns that women had was finding affordable health insurance. In fact the leading cause of personal bankruptcy in the United States is not wasteful spending like many people think but it is because of unpaid medical bills. While this might sound surprising at first it isn't all that surprising to the experts who know that currently some 40 million American are currently with health insurance and another 40 million have had some kind of gap in their insurance coverage in the last two years.

The main reason that so many people don't have health insurance is because the cost of health insurance is on the rise so many employers in order to cut costs have actually cut benefits and do not provide health insurance for their employees families, they will only cover their employees. But then another reason that people are having a hard time is because of the slowing down of the economy and getting laid off from work. But even getting laid off you are still eligible to maintain your health coverage for up to 18 months through your previous employer under a federal law called COBRA. But many people are having a hard time keeping that coverage because it generally costs around $600 a month, which if you are not working can be rather expensive.

But the good news is that regardless of the slowing economy or whether or not your employer provides you and your family with health insurance there is affordable health insurance out there for you to find. But something you need to keep in mind is that it is easier to find this insurance if you are in reasonably good health.

But even in some states regardless of your health you can have a hard time finding affordable health insurance because of the laws that were passed in those states. One law that was passed in some states was the guaranteed issue law which forbids insurance companies from rejecting people based on the condition of their health and the other law is the community rating system which requires insurers to charge everybody the same rates regardless of their health. Although the purpose of these laws was to give everybody access to health insurance most of the time these laws have failed because more insurance companies have fled these states because the only people who stay on these insurance plans are people who are already sick or who are older, which makes doing business hard.

Here are some tips that you should keep in mind when looking for affordable health insurance.

Tip one:
The first place that you should start looking is on the internet. There are numerous websites out there that will give you quotes on various health insurance plans which will allow you to compare which plan is right for you and/or your family. In fact according to eHealthInsurance.com, which is the online market leader when it comes to health insurance quotes, is giving comparisons for a healthy family of four for a major medical plan with a $1,000 deductible for around $400 a month and if you raise the deductible it can go down to about $200 a month for that same family. And the best part is that single people who are healthy can get even lower quotes than that. But in order to get affordable insurance through this website and others you are going to need to go through medical underwriting, answer numerous health questions and open up your medical records for the insurers to review. And what your final rate will be is going to depend on what they find in the answers to those questions or what they find on your medical records, which can actually mean the difference between affordable insurance plans and sky high premiums.

Tip two:
If you are currently looking for affordable insurance because you got laid off of work and you have a new job lined up but need to wait for your probation period to pass before you are eligible for benefits then something you might want to consider is short term insurance. These policies are always cheaper than regular policies because they do not cover pre-existing medical conditions and they reimburse a smaller percentage of your costs. If you are interested in obtaining short term coverage you should go to Fortis Insurance at Fortishealth.com because they are the leader in short term policies.

Tip three:
Make sure that you use a health insurance broker to review your quotes that you found online. Or you can use a broker to find the quotes for you. But not only will they help you find a good price they will also know a lot about the different insurance companies and will know who likes to raise rates on a regular basis or who enjoys hassling people if they end up filing claims. But a health insurance broker can also find you quotes from companies that are not currently online so you have a bigger pool to select from. One thing about health insurance brokers is that finding one can be rather difficult because of how complicated the laws are makes auto and life insurance brokers stay away. But the good news is that your auto or life insurance broker can refer you to a specialist or you can contact the National Association of Health Underwriters @ http://www.nahu.org/ to find a health insurance broker.

Tip four:
Make sure to visit your state's insurance department's web site. On this website you should be able to find a list of companies that are selling individual or family coverage in your state, the web site will also include companies that are not handled by brokers. One great example is BlueCross/BlueShield they are actually a company that prefers to deal with customers directly and most often than not they offer such low commissions that brokers find the company to be a waste of time. But in addition to providing you with a list of companies the website for your state insurance department can also provide you with other shopping tips that you can use for finding affordable health insurance and they also provide you with insurance company complaint records.

Tip five:
If you have been turned down for coverage from insurance companies because of your health you should look into your state's insurance pool. For example in Texas if you can't get coverage anywhere else, meaning through private companies, you are automatically covered by the high risk pool, but these prices can be quite steep. But in other states like New Jersey, who have guaranteed coverage there is no state insurance pool or high risk pool because the insurance companies are required to provide insurance to everyone.

Tip six:
If your state allows you to form a small group to buy insurance coverage you should consider this option. The reason for this is that even for tiny groups employer group policies are often subject to different rules, are more competitive and offer lower prices than individual policies. On average group policies can cost 20 to 50 percent less than an individual plan. For example in New Jersey you can form a group with as little as two employees as long as each employee works a minimum of 25 hours per week and you pay the employer's share of social security taxes for your workers. In Washington you can form a group of one and get better options as long as you have the tax forms to prove that you really are a business.

Tip seven:
Join an association that has group coverage so you can get better rates. For example in New York the local chamber of commerce offers some of the best health insurance options around and by joining that group you have access to those same options. But something to keep in mind is that in states that don't have many options association plans are very attractive but in other states they actually attract sick people so you get stuck with high prices.

Tip eight:
One thing that you want to avoid is finding these cheap policies that only cost so much a week. Many of these policies will only cover up to a certain amount of your medical expenses. So basically what happens is if you have a serious medical problem you will eat up that coverage and then still be stuck with super high medical bills. So rather than skimping and buying the cheapest policy you might want to consider raising your deductible to cut your costs. Keep in mind that you also want to have the broadest coverage that you can afford and don't leave out such things as outpatient hospital services because these can easily add up to thousands of dollars.