It’s not easy to say affordable and health care insurance in the same sentence. They don’t seem to peacefully co-exist. The relative simplicity of purchasing health insurance has all but vanished. That doesn’t mean that the insurance buying public is out of options. Insurance plans are more complicated now. There are more deductibles. There are PPO’S and HMO’S. There are medically underwritten plans and some companies even have income based plans. There are more coinsurance combinations and varying amounts of co-pays for physician services. It sounds like the insurance companies have made things more difficult but in reality they have provided options to reduce costs.

The out of pocket expenses are increasing for the health insurance buyer. Self-insuring is what makes affordable health care insurance become a reality. There is no better way to reduce premium costs than by using higher deductibles. We used to purchase health insurance with a $100 deductible. The insurance company was on the hook immediately. The rising medical costs have made that prohibitive.

Once your deductible is fulfilled another out of pocket expense occurs. This is called coinsurance. The most common coinsurance clause is the 80/20. You pay 20% of the actual expense after the deductible. After your 20% reaches a certain threshold (usually $2000) the insurance company begins to pay 100% of the cost.

Deductible and coinsurance options vary greatly and have a great impact on the final premium. This is not rocket science but it is imperative that you understand these insurance concepts. The last piece of the puzzle are Health Savings Accounts. These are like medical IRA’s. They are tax deductible savings accounts specifically designed to cover medical expenses. HSA’S are an excellent way to pay for the out of pocket expenses.

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