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by Steve Young

"Why do I need health insurance?"

That's probably the first question you need to ask yourself when you start shopping around for your health insurance. Naturally, we all want a health insurance plan that covers everything, with unlimited doctor visits at $10 copays, low to no deductibles for when we have to be hospitalized, no deductibles and low copays for all prescriptions with no limitations. Sounds great! Only problem is that it is unrealistic.

The best way to look at it is like this: The real purpose of health insurance is to cover the things you can't pay for, yourself. Remember, if you are going to pay an insurance company to pay healthcare costs that you could pay, you are always going to pay too much for the insurance. Think about it. Why give all your hard-earned money to the insurance company? What if you stay healthy? How much money do you think the insurance company will give back to you next year if you only go to the doctor once this year? For that reason, your best bet – dollar for dollar – is usually a high deductible, with limited to no doctor office copays. You can cut your premiums by as much as two-thirds or more by simply going with a higher deductible. That's money that you KEEP when you stay healthy!

What I recommend is this: Go with the highest deductible that you can sleep good at night with. The exciting news is that companies today are offering plans that accommodate your needs, whatever they may be. Companies, like Assurant Health (Fortis), are introducing innovative plans such as the new Health Savings Account plans, and their new economic-oriented RightStart Plan.

One alarming trend in the industry today is for an agent to sell a "limited benefits, hospital indemnity" plan as if it were a comprehensive major medical plan. These limited plans are often sold with "self-employed" or "small business" association benefits, so you may think you are getting some special official deal. Unfortunately, these plans usually limit your benefits to 300 or 400 dollars a day for a hospital room, with a few thousand dollars of benefits for miscellaneous charges. That's great if you can find a hospital that will only charge you $300 a day! What if you have a $100,000 hospital bill, and your insurance policy runs out of benefits at $50,000? Who pays the rest? You guessed it - YOU DO! Remember, just because a company has a large advertising budget does not make their benefits the best for you.

The real solution is comprehensive major medical insurance. The old fashioned kind with a deductible, coinsurance, and then 100% coverage, up to a reasonable large maximum. And as we covered earlier, you can save substantially by going with a higher deductible.

Whatever your situation, the good news is, you don't have to mortgage your home to get good quality health insurance for you and your family. If you shop smart, you can get comprehensive major medical health insurance at affordable rates.

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