Staying Healthy Will Lower Your Premiums

The number one fact to remember is that you health history will either make you or break you when purchasing health or life insurance. Many times health conditions can arise due to no fault of the person concerned. If you try to live a healthy lifestyle, you will be less likely to have a number of medical conditions that could be created by such things as tobacco, alcohol or dangerous sports. Just using common sense can keep you in a better position to stay healthy. Keeping healthy will keep your premiums down and eliminate the headaches from trying to buy insurance with pre-existing conditions.

Medical Fees Driving Up Health Insurance Costs

Many people complain of their health insurance premiums going up every year and believe the health insurance carriers are are just trying to get rich in doing so. In reality, the doctors and hospitals fees are going up every year at an alarming degree. When their fees go up, the insurance companies that have to pay these fees have to increase premiums. There are no caps on medical fees. The medical providers can literally charge whatever they want to. Many people these days go to the hospital for outpatient surgery and walk out with a bill for over $100,000 and they were in the hospital for less than 24 hours. The medical providers blame this on their malpractice insurance rates going up. This fact is true, but you also have to realize there is an extremely high degree of actual medical malpractice occurring in this country.

Lowering Your Prescription Drug Costs

The high costs of prescription drugs have been a thorn in the Americans side for a number of years now. They seem to be going up and up without any control or intervention by the government. They have literally raised the cost of health insurance single-handedly due to the drug provisions built into the PPO plan designs of today.

Migrating to an HSA health plan has helped reduced the cost of health insurance because of the increased "self insurance" factor of the plan design. Due to the fact the HSA plans do not have actual drug card co-pays, it is a good idea to shop around for the lowest prescription drug purchase prices to lower your out of pocket expenses. I have found that Sam's Club is the most competitive pharmacy out their for name brand or generic drugs. Their $4.00 generic list of drugs are an excellent value to the consumer.

Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) "The Smart Choice"

With the rising cost of medical treatment and the Federal Government driving up the health insurance rates, HSAs have been getting more popular every day. Anyone that passes up investigating these excellent plans are making an expensive mistake. Many large corporations are now offering HSAs as there only choice for health insurance. Keep in mind that these plans are simply another form of the PPO family of health plans and they are by far the most cost effective. Incorporate an HSA checking account to reduce your income tax liabilities and you are in business.

Health Insurance Rates Going Up!

September 23rd 2010 marks the beginning of phase one in healthcare reform. Here are the new changes to take effect:

1.Elimination of annual and lifetime dollar limits on benefits.

2. Extension of the dependent age limit to age 26.

3. Elimination of pre-existing condition exclusions for individuals under the age of 19.

4. 100% coverage for certain preventive well care services.

Health insurance premiums will be going up as the various phases are implemented. More information can be found on the department of insurance websites.

Life Insurance You Don't Have to Die to Use

There are some great new plan designs out there from an excellent A+ rated carrier by the name of Western Reserve Life from Ohio. These plans offer three additional benefits in addition to the standard death benefit.

The "terminal Illness" benefit can be triggered by the insured's doctor advising him that he will possibly die from his diagnosed illness in less than 12 months. 100% of his face amount can be taken prior to his death for whatever expenses he or she would like to use it for. The next benefit is the "critical Illness" benefit that can pay up to 90% of the death benefit if the insured is diagnosed with a illness such as a heart attack, cancer, stroke, kidney failure and several other critical conditions. Last but not least is the "Chronic Illness" benefit (90%), that can be activated by an illness that prevents the insured from doing some of the normal daily activities such as clothing himself, bathing or eating. Situations like these often will put the person in a nursing home type facility and the Western Reserve plan will then be able to pay benefits in the form of monthly fee expenses similar to a "Long Term Care" policy.

These new benefit packed life insurance plans offer a lot more value for your money when compared to a typical term policy and these new plans can be purchased for up to 40 years instead of the conventional maximum of 30 years. A plan design like these Advantage Term products could and will come in handy especially in these bad economic times where money is so tight for the average American family.

Traditional PPOs vs. HSA Health Savings Accounts

This is always one of the first and most common questions that come up when I speak with a person that is shopping for a health plan. The first question normally is, what is the real difference in these two plan designs.

First of all, keep in mind that a Health Savings Account is a PPO type health plan. The initial difference is that an HSA plan does not have a conventional doctors office co-pay e.g. ( $10, $20, $30) or a co-payment for prescription drugs e.g. (10/25/50), (15/30/75) and so forth. Instead of the usual co-pays, the insured would receive a contracted provider discount on these services and the out of pocket expenses would be applied against the plan deductible. Normally HSA plans have 100% co-insurance vs. the traditional PPOs 80/20 type co-insurance. In many situations, the HSA plan can offer lower out of pocket expenses instead the other way around as many consumer believe. Watching an HSA video can educate the consumer on all the good points of these excellent plans.