It is getting harder and harder for the average person to find affordable health insurance. While the average cost of healthcare for our nation soars to billions of dollars per year, the average per-person cost is also increasing due to the growing segment of the population above age 65. Even though health insurance costs are calculated on a per-person or per-family basis, the average cost to provide healthcare to our nation figures in because it determines how much income each insurance company needs to keep up with its costs. Therefore, in a nation with, for example, 25% senior citizens, the average per-person cost for medical care, and thus insurance, is much greater than the per-person cost in a nation with only 5% senior citizens.

At the same time, the actual costs for medical treatment are on the rise due to enhanced technology, more expensive equipment, research costs, and newer treatments. Simply becoming a doctor costs much more than it did several years ago. The average medical student will spend well over $100,000 on schooling before he/she starts making significant income. All of these increasing costs mean that health insurance is much more expensive than it once was.

What’s more, people are now paying more than ever for plans that include fewer benefits and stricter policies on doctor choice and what constitutes “necessary” treatments. For anyone without health insurance, the cost to get it is even greater, because insurance companies universally offer higher rates to anyone who hasn’t been continuously covered. This is because whenever you have a lapse in coverage, there is no way for a prospective insurer to review your past claim history, or your medical history, aside from what you report.

What You Pay

Premiums: The amount you pay for your health insurance coverage is called a “premium.” Premiums are usually figured on a monthly basis, but can be paid in fewer installments if desired. “Affordable” is a relative term, so it is impossible to label one insurance plan as affordable and another as unaffordable. For most consumers, affordable healthcare means that the monthly premiums fit into the monthly budget. However, monthly premiums are not the only costs associated with health insurance. Read the rest of this entry »

No single company or insurance plan offers the cheapest rates for health insurance, and your available rates depend heavily on your individual medical history, lifestyle, and health. If your main concern is finding the cheapest rates possible, a good place to start is to request a free quote from different companies. Once you’ve gotten an idea of what your coverage will cost, you need to narrow your search to the exact coverage specifications you want.

Underwriting

Anytime you request an insurance rate quote, you have to go through a process called underwriting before your quote can be translated into an exact rate. A “quote” is a rough estimate of what your insurance will cost based on the most general risk categories (age, gender, smoking, and type of coverage). A “rate” is your actual monthly premium cost after underwriting. Underwriting is the process by which an insurance company thoroughly examines your information to assess your various risk factors. A major consideration during health insurance underwriting is your medical history. Within that medical history breakdown, different types of ailments factor in differently as risk factors. If you’ve had a recurring skin condition, for example, that will not be treated as seriously as if you’ve had repeated problems with your liver.

Back problems, mental health problems, obesity, and heart problems are examples of “red flag” risk factors that insurance companies consider to be indicators of future expenses. Although these types of issues may not have been mentioned when you applied for quotes, they will be examined during underwriting and they will cause an increase in rates. The cheapest health insurance plans are those that exclude all pre-existing conditions. If you’ve had a major medical expense in the past and are fairly sure it was a one-time thing, you can choose to file a specific exclusion for any future treatment for that condition. This will save you on premiums, but keep in mind that if the condition recurs, you won’t be covered for it if you agreed to an exclusion.

Deductibles

The cheapest monthly rates for health insurance are associated with higher deductibles. A deductible is the amount you pay out of pocket each year before your health insurance starts picking up its portion of your bills. When you receive a rate quote from a certain company (after underwriting), you can then request a comparison of your different deductible options within the same plan. Once your overall risk category is determined by the insurance company, they can instantly provide you with exact prices for various deductibles. With that information, you can calculate your cheapest option. You will need to compare the total annual premium cost with the increase or decrease in deductible to determine the most cost-effective option. For more information about how to calculate your best option for deductibles vs. premiums, see the article Affordable Health Insurance Online. Read the rest of this entry »

The cheapest and quickest way to find affordable health insurance online is to request a rate quote from several companies at once and compare the results. If you only check the rates of 1 or 2 companies, you won’t be able to see the entire range of premiums available to you, and therefore you can’t be sure you’ve found a good deal. Even if you already have a company you like, you might be able to find just as good a company with better rates. The only way to find out is to check.

LIQ’s no-obligation free rate quote service is designed for just this purpose. We have partnered with hundreds of insurance providers, choosing only companies who have demonstrated a good financial record and a solid customer service background, and these companies have given us the permission and the formulas to obtain instant rate quotes on your behalf.

Risk Factors

All insurance is priced according to risk. The higher the likelihood that you will make a claim, the higher your risk category. When you apply for insurance, you will be asked a series of questions about your general health, age, gender, medical history, and family medical history. Within the medical history portion, you will need to indicate what ailments you’ve been treated for in the last 1-3 years, and the current state of each condition. The cheapest insurance plans completely exclude pre-existing conditions that have been treated within that 1-3 year period. Pre-existing conditions that have not been treated in at least 1-3 years may be covered even on cheaper plans.

It is not true that the most expensive option is necessarily the best coverage. Different companies have different formulas for calculating risk, and for translating that risk into premium amounts. Read the rest of this entry »

It is impossible to give an exact range for health insurance costs for any individual without gathering a significant amount of information. Because so many variables are figured into an individual’s premium rate, the best way to figure out what your average health insurance rate will be is to compare quotes from different companies. When you perform a quote comparison, you will be able to see the basic range of costs for your coverage type, age, gender, and general medical condition.

Deductibles

A big factor that determines your health insurance rates is what size deductible you choose. Your deductible is the amount you have to pay each year before your health insurance will begin covering all or part of your expenses. A health insurance plan with a deductible of $5,000 will have very different monthly rates than the same plan with an annual deductible of $1,000. In some cases, you may even be able to cut your rates by over 50% just by choosing a higher deductible.

Types of Insurance

There are many types of health insurance to choose from. The most basic distinction is between indemnity (major medical) and managed care coverage. With indemnity coverage, you can choose your own doctors, and you can refer yourself to specialists without seeing your doctor first, but this type of plan is more expensive and may offer higher co-payments than a managed care plan.

With a managed care plan, you can receive discounted services (or smaller co-payments) by choosing a doctor who is listed with the insurance company’s provider directory. In managed care, participating physicians bargain with the insurance company to offer lower rates for all services, thereby saving the insurance company money on every claim. Depending on your managed care plan’s structure, you may either receive discounts for using in-plan physicians, or you may be limited to only in-plan physicians in order to receive insurance benefits.

These distinctions bring to bear a major question for many people seeking medical insurance: “Will my regular doctor be included in the plan?” When discussing the average cost of insurance, it is important to distinguish between insurance plans that include your doctor(s) and ones that don’t. For many people, it is worth the extra expense to be able to stay with the same doctors. For others, medical care is such a minor concern that choosing a physician is not such an important consideration. Read the rest of this entry »

The U.S. has hundreds of health insurance providers. Within each company, there may also be different options for overall types of coverage, and the different options will offer different rates. Before you choose a health insurance company, you may want to do some research and find out about the company’s customer satisfaction record and its financial stability.

Claims Process

In order for your health insurance to cover any expenses, you have to make a claim. Some insurance plans require you to pay cash for services and then apply for reimbursement. Other plans require your physician to contact the insurance company directly for payment. In the latter case, you will normally be responsible for your co-payment (such as a $10 office visit fee). Then, the physician will bill the insurance company directly and if there is an outstanding balance not covered by insurance, you will be billed by your doctor.

An important factor in customer satisfaction with health insurance companies is the ease of the claims process. Some companies require extensive paperwork to file a claim, while others make this process easy by dealing directly with your doctor. Reimbursement plans can be harder to handle because they require the availability of funds to cover your own expenses until you can be reimbursed. Direct billing claims processes are simpler and don’t require the patient to come up with money to front for doctor and hospital visits. Now that it is much easier to buy health insurance online, there are also many more resources for consumers wishing to research insurance companies before they choose a provider. Consumerhealthratings.com offers annual ratings of health insurance companies by doctors, hospitals, and consumers. Sites like Consumer Health Ratings can be a great resource when you’re trying to narrow down your options. Read the rest of this entry »

When choosing health insurance coverage, first you need to make some decisions about what you want and how much you can afford to pay each month. If your goal is to save money, there are certain options you can choose that will lower your monthly premiums. If your goal is never to pay out of pocket for anything, you will want to take a slightly different tack.

Provide Accurate Information

When you apply for health insurance quotes online, you’ll need to answer a series of questions for about your health status, medical history, and family medical history. You will need to provide a complete medical history for each person included in the plan. Although your instant quotes will change when your policy is underwritten, by providing very accurate information from the beginning you will receive more accurate quotes. It is never a good idea to withhold information or lie on your health insurance application. Not only is it considered fraud to lie on an official insurance application, but it may nullify your coverage if it is discovered that you failed to report a pre-existing condition.

Pre-existing Conditions

It can be very difficult to obtain individual health insurance coverage that pays for pre-existing conditions. A pre-existing condition is any medical issue you had before the point where you applied for coverage. Technically, it is a condition for which you’ve been previously treated. If you have never been treated for a condition but it is discovered after the fact that you’ve had the condition since before your coverage term began, it is not considered “pre-existing.” Additionally, most health insurance plans only ask for your medical history for the last 1-3 years, so if you have a recurring condition for which you haven’t been treated in at least 1 year, you may be covered for it even though it is technically pre-existent. Read the rest of this entry »

When shopping for health insurance online, you need to make sure you understand what your choices will mean in terms of actual costs. If you research your options now, you won’t have to worry about being shocked by the system once you actually need to use it.

Applying for Health Insurance Quotes Online

In order to compare health insurance quotes on Leading Insurance Quotes, you’ll need to provide us with some information. Your health insurance rates will depend on a variety of factors, each of which determines your projected costs and therefore the projected liability of the insurance company. The quote service only requires the following information:

• Age
• Gender
• Tobacco Use
• Student Status

Once you provide this basic information for everyone you want to be included in your health insurance plan, we will search hundreds of companies offering coverage in your area and then we will provide you with the best rates we can find for your chosen type of coverage.

Your age and gender are used to place you into a risk category. Insurance companies base their rates on your various risk categories, which indicate to the company the statistically projected cost of your healthcare. The cost of health insurance increases with age because your risk of medical problems increases with age. Gender is another important consideration in determining your risk category because there are different illnesses associated with certain age/gender combinations. For example, men over 40 are at greater risk for a heart attack than women under 30. By the same token, women under 40 are at greater risk for pregnancy than women over 40. The cheapest group to insure is men between the ages of 20-30 because they have the least risk of disease and no risk of pregnancy. Read the rest of this entry »

When shopping for health insurance, the number of options can be daunting and it can be difficult to understand the differences between your choices. Many people don’t have a choice about their healthcare plans because they must accept whatever plan is offered by their employers. But for those who need to choose their own health insurance, it’s important to understand how the different plans are structured.

Traditional Indemnity vs. Managed Care

The first health insurance plans were indemnity plans, also called “major medical coverage.” With indemnity coverage, patients could choose their own doctors and specialists, and could see specialists without referrals from primary physicians. Normally, patients pay an annual deductible, which is the amount you have to pay out of pocket before insurance starts paying a share of any medical expenses. A standard deductible may be anywhere from $200 to $5,000, and must be determined when signing up for the plan. With a $2,500 deductible, for instance, the patient must pay the first $2,500 of the year’s medical bills out of pocket, and after that point the insurance company will begin paying a portion of the bills. The remaining portion, paid by the insured, is called a “co-payment” or “co-pay.” If you choose higher deductible and co-pay amounts, you will automatically get a lower monthly premium rate. With a traditional indemnity plan, you pay cash for services and then submit a reimbursement request to your insurance company, which usually pays around 80% of everything after the deductible has been paid. Traditional indemnity plans did not cover preventative care, but as advances in medicine have demonstrated the long-term savings associated with preventative care, some indemnity insurance companies are beginning to offer benefits for routine doctor visits.

Managed care plans are a more modern form of health insurance. With managed care plans, a network of healthcare providers is included in the plan and you have access to these providers at discounted rates. In some cases, you can only see network physicians. There are different types of managed care plans, and each has a different procedure for choosing doctors and being referred to specialists. Read the rest of this entry »

No-Fault Insurance

No-fault auto insurance is a system by which each driver’s insurance is responsible for his/her own medical bills in an accident, regardless of who was at fault. This is similar to mandatory Personal injury protection (PIP) because it pays your own medical expenses, however, PIP only pays your medical expenses if you cause an accident and your injuries are therefore not covered by the other driver’s BIL, or bodily injury liability coverage. Under the no-fault system, again, your insurance company automatically pays for your injuries regardless of fault.

Another aspect of the no-fault system, and perhaps the goal of the system, is that it precludes the possibility of seeking legal recourse against another driver for injuries. When over 20 U.S. states tried to enact a no-fault insurance system in the early 1970s, it was thought that the number of personal injury lawsuits resulting from car accidents would decrease, and that insurance companies and drivers alike would ultimately save money. However, many of those states repealed the laws and returned to a tort system after experiencing an increase in lawsuits (because drivers didn’t want to pay their own expenses and experience rate increases when they didn’t cause an accident). Read the rest of this entry »

Graduated Driver’s License programs, called GDLs, are designed to transition teens into licensed drivers. With these systems, new drivers must go through three stages to obtain their full driver’s license. The three stages are: supervised learning period, limited unsupervised learning period, and full license. GDL programs have been shown to drastically reduce crash rates among teen drivers, rates which have previously been shown to be 4 times higher than in any other age group.

Supervised Learning Period

The first stage of a GDL program is the supervised learning period. Before a new driver can enter the supervised learning period, he/she must pass a written test to demonstrate a basic knowledge of traffic rules and road signs. During this time, which lasts for a certain time period or a certain number of miles, the driver may only drive when supervised by a parent or other licensed driver. In many states, this first-stage license is simply called a “learner’s permit” and can be obtained up to 6 months before a teen has reached legal driving age. Drivers who hold a learner’s permit may be limited in the hours of day they are allowed to drive and how many passengers are allowed in the car. Read the rest of this entry »