Money Saving Tips Using Your Health Insurance
The year is about to end and you may be worried about where you will source for funds to finance your costly health insurance coverage. You may be thinking of cutting down on costs, but you do not have precise ways that will help you achieve this without exposing you to potentially high-cost out-of-pocket expenses.
Insurance expenses to cover medical and healthcare have become unbearable for most people because of increasing premiums, many people transiting to old age, ever rising cost of providing medication to the insured population, and inflationary economies. Below are five money-saving tips that will reduce your insurance costs and allow you access to high quality health coverage plans for you and your family.
Tip 1: Raising Out-of-pocket Expenses
When you increase your out-of-pocket expenses, you will be raising your deductibles to influence the monthly premiums that you will pay toward your coverage. Many insurance providers have designed various insurance plans that allow policy holders to navigate the ever-rising cost of coverage by choosing to lower their monthly premiums. If you are comfortable paying more from your pocket to cater for your medical costs, you will be able to find an affordable health insurance plan. While many countries and states have passed health protection Acts that allow their populations to access healthcare, it is still unclear how insurance costs will reduce since other factors continue to impact the overall cost of access to quality healthcare.
By increasing your annual deductibles, you are simply reducing the coverage that can be paid by your insurance carrier. Your out-of-pocket payments can cater for prescription medication. If you do not foresee a major spending toward prescription medications in the coming year, you should choose that has a larger deductible.
Tip 2: Take Advantage of Open Enrollment
Many insurance companies especially established ones provide their clients with open enrollment plans that allow them to transfer from one insurance plan to another without putting many conditions on the pre-qualifications that are usually in place during normal enrollment days. Most insurance companies require people with chronic conditions and other conditions limited access to a particular insurance coverage plans and such people can benefit from open periods organized by their insurance companies. Usually, open enrolment is a period that last for one month within which you can change your plan and enjoy the benefits of the new plan. Be keen to mark on your calendar your company’s open enrollment days to allow you access most suited plans for you or your family.
Tip 3: Switch to Tour Spouse’s Insurance Coverage
There are situations when both spouses are eligible for insurance benefits provided by their employers. You can check your company’s health insurance coverage options when your provider starts its open enrollment to determine the best option for both of you. If your employer deducts more money toward medical insurance contributions than your spouse’s employer, you can save a considerable amount by switching his or her coverage and terminating your own plan. This means that you can be able to save the extra money if you crunch the numbers the right way to know the less costly option.
Tip 4: Switching to Smaller Doctor/Medical Networks
Most, if not all insurance companies work with more than one network of doctors from which you are allowed to choose. By changing from one network to the next, you will not be changing the type of benefits, but you will be changing the provider of healthcare. If the insurance company has smaller networks than those you are dealing with, you should consider changing since you could lower your premiums by about 10% every month.
Author Bio
Sarah Daren is a writer who creates informative articles relating to the field of health. In this article, she offers financial advice on health insurance and aims to encourage further study with a UC HIM Degree.
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Category: Health
