HealthCompare Offers Consumers Five Tips for Buying Health Insurance

Online, August 11, 2011 (Newswire.com) - HealthCompare, a health insurance quotes comparison website has released five tips to help consumers learn more about buying health insurance for themselves and their families. From the HealthCompare website:

"HealthCompare provides health insurance sales and service support for individual and families across the country. HealthCompare's website and it's licensed professionals help people find the right health insurance options to meet their needs."

HealthCompare's Tips for Buying Health Insurance

Buying individual health insurance might seem challenging at first. After all, most of us are used to being covered under our parent's policy and then under an employer sponsored plan. As it's not something we do every day, buying individual health insurance seems much scarier than it really is. The good news is, if you can read this article, you can navigate the process with ease, especially with this helpful hints and tricks for buying individual health insurance.

1. It's easy to get free, multiple quotes from a variety of insurance carriers online and in the privacy of your own home or office. There are websites set up to make buying individual health insurance as easy as possible, without having to give up personal details and being hounded for the sale forever.

2. Don't just pay attention to the amount of the monthly premium. While this number certainly is an important factor when buying individual health insurance, you need to also consider other out of pocket expenses to make a well informed decision. Some of these expenses include:

The deductible. A high deductible often means lower premiums and the opposite is true, too. You'll pay a hefty penny for a low deductible policy.

Co-payments. If you're in and out of the doctor's office a lot, a high co-pay could be a real budget buster.

Co-insurance. After the deductible is met, you'll still usually have to pay a portion as your co-insurance. The percentage varies by policy as does the out of pocket maximum which puts a cap to your out of pocket expenses every calendar year.

3. If you are buying individual health insurance, talk to your accountant about which expenses could be deducted from your taxes. This could make medical coverage even more affordable than you'd thought. Be sure to ask about deducting the premiums, if a health savings account that you can contribute to pre-tax would be beneficial to you and what medical expenses can be written off your taxes.

4. Be sure to look at the provider directory provided by each plan as you are buying individual health insurance. Is your personal physician a member of the network? Are there plenty of facilities and specialists in your area that participate?

5. Don't be afraid to ask questions. The same websites that provide quotes also have live health insurance experts that you can call to get answers.