Buying a health insurance plan is just like buying a car. All cars have four tires and an engine, and all health insurance plans have deductibles and some have coinsurance. What you have to ask yourself is how big or small a deductible you want to purchase. The smaller the deductible the higher the premium. Another way to say that is that the higher the deductible, the lower the premium. People who want to lower their health insurance premiums should consider increasing their deductibles.

Every type of health insurance, actually every type of insurance, is for catastrophic situations–“so I don’t lose my home, car, and shirt (and for me, my scuba gear!)” With this understanding, you will be able to find the best insurance “vehicle” for you.

A great definition of insurance is “a system to protect persons, groups, or businesses against the risks of financial loss by transferring the risks to a large group who agrees to share the financial losses in exchange for premium payments.”

Plans without copays have a variety of names to represent the same kind of plans: “HSA plans,” “no copay plans,” “high deductible plans,” and “catastrophic plans.” If you want leather seats, built-in GPS, and an Ipod holder in your car, you will be paying a higher price for the car.  The same goes with adding more benefits to your health insurance plan. You may want to add copays that will pay for doctor visits, prescriptions, urgent-care visits, and maternity coverage. Please realize adding all these extra benefits will mean a higher premium. If you do add copays to your insurance plan, the deductible and coinsurance will still go toward surgeries and procedures done in a hospital.

Doug Gulleson loves to scuba dive overseas. He makes sure he always takes his credit card AND international travel insurance. Visit Good Neighbor Insurance for your next overseas trip and get a FREE quote.