Health Insurance: How To Select The Right One

Written By Eve Anderson / Reviewed By Ray Spotts

For many Americans, picking between health insurance quotes is something they must do on an annual basis. Failing to have coverage can mean risking your health, but getting the wrong coverage can entail risking your financial health.

Know When and How to Enroll

For most people, open enrollment happens towards the last few months of the calendar year. However, there are always exceptions, and things can change from one state to the next. Depending on your circumstances, you might get quotes on the open market as a private consumer, through the federal exchange, or even through a state-level exchange.

Always Review Your Options

If you like your current plan and would like to continue using it, make sure it's available. There's nothing wrong with sticking with something that works.

However, there's also nothing wrong with looking over your options to make sure you can't get something better or just get similar coverage for a lower price. The available offerings change every year, so be open to new options.

Think Monthly and Yearly

Your eyes might be first drawn to the monthly premiums involved with any health insurance quote, and that cost should be a huge factor in your choice. However, it shouldn't be the only one. Look into annual costs that might also come to bear, especially with deductibles.

Are you likely to run out of particular benefits before the year is over? Will you possibly hit the deductible and then pay less co-pays? Try to predict what your year of health care spending might look like.

Decide What to Bundle

Depending on who you turn to for your insurance, you might be able to bundle multiple policies together at once. Health insurance can be commonly bundled with dental and vision insurance.

However, if you look into Freeway insurance quotes, you might be able to also get policies such as car insurance, renters or homeowner's insurance, life insurance, and more. A company such as Freeway covers many different kinds of insurance, some of which you might not know even exist and yet can be very useful to have.

Make Sure Your Doctor Is Available

If you don't want to switch doctors or any specialists that you visit on a regular basis, then make sure they are covered by any new plan that you might switch to. For that matter, be sure they are covered in the in-network plan and not out-of-network where the reimbursement levels aren't going to be as high.

Know Your Medications

Blanket numbers about prescription coverage are commonly quoted, but the devil is in the details. If you have regular maintenance medications you need constantly, then check to look them up individually and find out what the actual coverage level is for them from a potential health insurer.

Make Sure It Counts

If you're looking for health insurance to cover you all year and avoid the federal penalties for no coverage, then you need to have the right policy. There is a market for short-term health insurance to cover people between jobs or permanent policies, but these are sometimes advertised along with the same policies.

The coverage can look great for the price, but if you look into them, you'll see that they are nowhere near as much coverage as you get from a permanent annual policy.

Key Takeaways

Picking between health insurance quotes might be something you only do once a year on average, but it's a decision with broad implications. When you do it, remember to:

• Know when it is time to enroll and how to do it.
• Always review the available options.
• Anticipate your yearly expenses.
• Choose what policies you might want to bundle.
• See if your current doctor is covered and in-network.
• Look up coverage of your specific medications for their copay rates.
• Be sure it's actual long-term health insurance unless you're looking for a short-term policy.

These steps should make choosing from among your health insurance quotes a simpler and more effective task when the time comes.

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Written By:

Eve Anderson is a quirky, sharp, and meticulous copywriter with a bachelor's in communications from Washington State University. She loves exploring antique stores, roaming redwood forests, and critiquing the absurdities of modern civilization.

Reviewed By:

Founder Ray Spotts has a passion for all things natural and has made a life study of nature as it relates to health and well-being. Ray became a forerunner bringing products to market that are extraordinarily effective and free from potentially harmful chemicals and additives. For this reason Ray formed Trusted Health Products, a company you can trust for clean, effective, and healthy products. Ray is an organic gardener, likes fishing, hiking, and teaching and mentoring people to start new businesses. You can get his book for free, “How To Succeed In Business Based On God’s Word,” at www.rayspotts.com.