Can I Lower My Health Insurance Premiums?

If you are like the rest of the consumers across America, then you definitely want to pay lower costs for your health coverage, but you don’t want to sacrifice the level of protection received. There are more than a few ways that you can work to lower your premium that doesn’t include dropping any of your protected services. In addition, you don’t want to sign up for a cheaper plan through an insurance provider that may not be accepted by a variety of health centers. Like doing the research when it comes to finding out how much you may be charged for a doctor’s visit, you can typically negotiate better rates if you feel that your policy is increasing in price without adding additional benefits.

Locating Discounts

If you have noticed increased insurance costs without any explanation provided, then you want to look into from where these extra fees are stemming. In order to get your medical statements evaluated, you can utilize the services of a medical bill auditor to check your billing statement for errors. If you don’t find any errors in the charges or coverage, you can still learn some of the complicated language found on your bills. This helps you understand the various charges applied to your statement and the information gleaned gives you ways to lower these costs in the times ahead.

You can also lower your monthly premiums by spending less time in the emergency department of your local hospital. In a lot of cases, parents have rushed their child to the ER in the middle of the night due to an earache or some other minor health issue. This is basically because the emergency room is the only medical facility open and ready to treat patients as they come in. Each and every time you utilize services from the ER, your premium gets raised because your insurance provider wants to cover costs associated with expensive emergency room services. If you anticipate that you may need medical services at various odd hours during the night, you may want to research the location of a 24-hour clinic to tend to medical needs as they arise. When searching, make sure that the clinic you select doesn’t work through a hospital. This helps to lower the costs associated with late night visits and prescriptions. You can also get you or a family member the services they need while avoiding hefty emergency room fees.

You may also have a clinic nearby that offers various complimentary screenings or consultations that will not require the use of your health insurance coverage. Pharmacies typically offer stations where you can check your blood pressure, so you won’t need to pay for this routine, easy to obtain information.

If you plan to change doctors or seek the services of a specialist, you can eliminate transfer fees by requesting your x-rays or medical files to share with your new doctor. This makes it so your insurance company will not have to increase the cost of your premium to cover the transfer of your records.

As with any sort of health coverage, the better you take care of your health, the less you will have to pay out to your insurance provider in order to remain a client. People who engage in unhealthy or risky behaviors tend to pay increased rates for insurance coverage. Smokers, risk takers like skydivers or out of shape people typically pay higher rates. With some effort, you can eliminate some of these obstacles and a lot of insurance providers will give you discounts on your rates if you get help to kick your various bad habits. They may even cover the cost of your membership fees for these various groups that work to eliminate health risks.

You should not ignore any medical issues so that you will save on the costs of insurance coverage. In order to lower the cost of your insurance coverage, you should see your doctor for regular checkups to avoid things like high cholesterol that will eventually need to be medicated. If your insurance rates are higher due to your prescriptions, you should ask your doctor if there is a generic alternative to your prescribed medications, which typically cost much less than their brand name counterparts.