How to Find Affordable Health Insurance in San Jose
San Jose has been ranked number eighteen in the country for affordable
health insurance. This is good news to those of us who are
self-employed, between jobs, or don’t have benefits through
our employers. People who’ve chosen to retire early
and aren’t eligible for Medicare also have problems finding
affordable insurance. Health insurance is almost a necessity
in the United States, yet forty million Americans go without it
every day because they are unable to obtain affordable insurance
plans. In 2005, premiums for health insurance even through
employers rose to an average of ten thousand dollars a year for
family coverage, and four thousand a year for individual coverage. Individuals
who had to purchase their own insurance paid higher premiums yet. The
biggest cause of personal bankruptcy claims was unpaid medical
debt.
If you’re looking for affordable health insurance and can’t
receive it through your employer, start your search on the Internet. There,
you can easily find insurance providers and compare prices and
policies. Some sites will provide information and quotes
from several insurance providers at once. Don’t sign
up for the cheapest thing you see, though. Insurance companies
often hide higher prices in what seem like great deals. Low
deductible plans, for instance, often wind up costing you more
in monthly premiums than they save. Unless you’re struck
with the bad luck to wind up in the hospital early in the year,
you’ll pay out more over the course of the plan than you’ll
manage to save.
Be sure to show your prospective plans to an expert who can help
you choose the one that is right for you and your needs. Also,
check with the state board of insurance if you’re considering
a plan from an out of state provider. Some out of state providers
take advantages of loopholes in the law to raise premiums only
for certain customers. It’s important to make sure
that your state’s laws will not permit this to happen to
you.
If you expect to be able to acquire a job that will give you insurance
benefits, you might want to consider short-term insurance. This
is the most inexpensive type of medical insurance, because it does
not cover all expenses. It is, however, good coverage in
case of accidents or other unexpected emergencies while between
jobs or if you expect to leave your job soon. Short term
plans can also be used by people with pre-existing conditions to
bridge the period when a new insurance plan will not cover those
conditions.
If you’re a member of a professional or alumni association,
you might be able to get well-priced insurance coverage through
that group. Always be sure to check the consumer ratings
for any insurance company, because your association may not have
chosen a reliable one. All the cautions for other insurance
companies still apply. If you need to cut costs on your policy,
do it by raising the deductible, not by removing coverage of things
like outpatient services, which can rack up thousands of dollars
in expenses.