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Coping with Insurance Costs

If you’re one of the 47 million Americans without health insurance, finding a place for insurance in your budget may seem like an insurmountable task. Options do exist, however, and the expenses of the options must be weighted against the cost of an unpredictable medical emergency – a $ 50,000 surgery is harder to cope with than a couple hundred bucks a month.

Let’s take a look at a few of the options available to you:

Employer-sponsored plans

If you have the opportunity to purchase health insurance through your employer, talk to your employer about getting enrolled. Even if you have to cover a large part of premiums, your monthly costs will be far lower than with private insurance. Your employer may offer a Flexible Spending Account (FSA) or a Health Savings Account (HSA) option, which can help you to cover qualified medical expenses without those funds being subject to tax.

Government-sponsored health insurance

If you don’t have access to an employer-sponsored plan, check to see what government health-insurance options are available to you. This doesn’t mean the Obama Administration’s current proposals – plenty of states already HAVE government sponsored health care you might qualify for.

Though many of these programs are only available to low income parents and dependents, more states are adding options for single adults in certain income ranges. The benefits of these plans vary from covering catastrophic injuries or illnesses only to more comprehensive options with preventative medicine benefits and prescription drug coverage.If yours is a lower income household, visit the state aid website or talk to a Health and Human Services representative in your area about what you might qualify for.

Private health insurance options

Private health insurance is generally considered to be the least desirable medical coverage option, as the premiums for these plans are much higher than what you’ll find from an employer-sponsored plan. In addition, as a private purchaser, you lose the premium increase protection that group plan members enjoy, meaning that your premiums may increase dramatically over time or in response to a large number of claims. You might find that you’ve been disqualified for a plan due to a pre-existing condition.

High-deductible plans

But even if you do qualify for private health insurance, it’s not uncommon for monthly premiums to exceed $ 300 per month – even for healthy participants. One option for lowering your costs is to consider a high-deductible health plan, which will give you a smaller monthly payment in exchange for a lower level of coverage. For example, you may elect a $ 2,500 deductible (the amount of money you’ll pay out of pocket before your coverage kicks in) in order to get a monthly premium that you can afford. It’s not ideal – you’ll have to pay out of pocket for any doctor’s appointments or tests until you reach your deductible – but it will prevent major medical expenses from causing you to go bankrupt.