Do Your Health Insurance Premiums Make You Sick?

GLADSTONE, N.J., Nov. 9, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Americans are confused about their health insurance.  Every year premiums go up and out-of-pocket expenses go up too.  No matter how much we pay we keep hearing that we have to pay more.  Obamacare is here to stay and it sounds like its going to drive costs even higher.  Americans are fed up paying for insurance and we want control over our own money.

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Katherine Woodfield, author of Don't Buy THAT Health Insurance: Become an Educated Health Care Consumer, and CEO of Healthcare-Insurance-Education.com understands your pain.  Widowed with 3 young children, she became America's First Health Insurance Consumer Advocate.  You can control your health care costs and lower your premiums and Ms. Woodfield will show you how.

3 tricks to paying less this year:

• Embrace a High Deductible Option – People who work in insurance know that premiums generally go down by an amount equal to 20% + the deductible.  So, a $1,000 deductible might cost $1,200 less than having no deductible.  And, if you stay healthy, you keep the $1,200.
• Master Prescription Pricing – Generics are therapeutic equivalents to your prescription, so switch to the less expensive version, order quarterly when you can, and you can save big time!
• Choose Retail over Emergency Room Visits – Kids got an ear infection on a Saturday afternoon? Poison ivy making you crazy?  Qualified, trained Nurse Practitioners are available in retail stores, where the prescriptions are easily available – one stop shopping and the cost could be less than $100!  If you need immediate, non life threatening attention think about alternate care sites.

There is no reason your health care choices should always be driven by your health insurance company.  There are many times when it is prudent and less expensive to manage your own health care and the related expenses yourself. 

Health insurance is really just a big buying club.  Just like when you go to a discount retail store, the insurance company has negotiated lower rates from various providers.  So, as a member of a health insurance plan, when you go to their providers, you will pay a discounted rate.  If you want the insurance company to also pay for your services, they are going to collect those monies up front! This is a for-profit organization and they are not going to set themselves up to loose money on you.

If you want to control costs and lower premiums, take control of your health care education and become an educated health insurance consumer!  Learn more savings tricks and health care tips at www.healthcare-insurance-education.com.

SOURCE healthcare-insurance-education.com