health insurance premium Archives - Smartchoice.pk

How to Lower Health Insurance Premiums

Khurram Zahid — Sat, 01 Jun 2019 09:24:19 +0000

You can’t control when you get sick or injured. But you do have options when it comes to what you pay for your health insurance premium. That’s the monthly payment you make to your health insurance company to maintain your health care coverage.

If you search for health insurance quotes online, you will receive a range of prices from different insurance companies for very similar policies. Different insurance companies assign differing values to components in your risk profile. The information in your insurance application, and your medical history, comprise your risk profile.

If an insurance company reviews your risk profile and determines that they want to provide you with health insurance, they calculate the insurance premiums based on the information in your individual application and provide you with a quote for the policy. Each company uses a different set of standards and assumptions to calculate that premium. Many different risk factors affect premium prices for most plans.

In this blog series we will tell you some tips and tricks of how to lower down your health insurance premium this much that it will not ask for your arm and leg:

1. Pay only for whats needed, and review your policy regularly

It makes no sense to pay for obstetrics and IVF if you are in the mature stage of your life. The same applies to a young person paying for treatment more common for older people. Look closely at policies to find one that best suits your needs at your stage in life.

You should periodically reassess your insurance needs. Things you should think about include:

Do you have children that go to the doctor often?
Do you take a lot of prescription drugs?
Are tax breaks important to you?
Are you willing to assume the cost of routine health in exchange for much lower premiums?”

The following considerations will help you to save money on your insurance premium evidently.

2. Trade up group health insurance plans

It also helps to lower down you insurance premium If both you and your spouse have group health insurance plans available through work, calculate which one will cover both your needs at the lowest cost. For some people, group rates might not offer the best value — an individual family plan might offer a cheaper option.

3. Get Separate Coverage For the Family

You may notice a few changes in your health care coverage (if it’s by your employer) as it pertains to the rest of your family. One trend that is expected is to see a decrease in the subsidy that is allowed to pay for the family’s coverage in employer health plans. With the sudden spike in cost, it could make sense to keep only yourself on your policy and your employer and put your spouse and kids on their own policy.

4. Shop around!

When you’re looking for a doctor for yourself or your family, you don’t pick the first one you see – so don’t pick the first health insurance policy you hear about.

You will be surprised what you find when you compare policies. You may get the same cover for less or more cover for the price you are currently paying. As with anything financial, it pays to keep tabs on what’s happening in the market, as nothing stays the same.

Keep in mind that saving money on insurance is not all there is to it. The cheapest health insurance policy is highly unlikely to be the best – that’s why here at Smartchoice, we compare health insurance based on price and features.

5. Change your co-insurance ratio

Your co-insurance ratio is how much you will pay after you have met your deductible.

A common ratio is 80/20. This means that after you pay your deductible toward health care expenses, your insurer pays 80 percent of the bill and you pay 20 percent. Changing this ratio so you pay more will mean a lower health insurance premium. Just as with raising your deductible, you have to weigh the costs versus risks.

6. Payment at right time

Most people wait to pay until after a medical procedure like surgery or hospitalization. But you could be missing out on potential savings, If you already have coverage and you have a procedure that is coming up, ask about pre-paying or paying in-full to receive a discount,”

This may differ from policy to policy.

7. Choose the right places to get care

Running to the emergency room every time you need after-hours care might be draining your wallet. The ER should be your last resort—consider more affordable options like urgent care clinics . You may want to research a bit beforehand—prices can vary between similar facilities. By opting for a stand-alone radiology and surgery center, you’re looking at big savings. Your physician may also work at multiple hospitals or surgery centers, so ask for assistance to shop around for the best price.”

8. Enroll in a wellness incentive

Some companies will offer a lower premium to employees who participate in wellness challenges or check off certain tasks for preventative health, or might get free coverage just by getting in a certain number of steps, for example. If you join one of these incentive programs.This may help you to save money on your insurance premiums.

9. Don’t beg, NEGOTIATE!

Did you know that almost eight out of 10 medical bills have some type of error? That’s all the proof you need to go through each bill with a fine-toothed comb. “It pays to ask for the full bill and check it for inaccuracies, Do the same with the explanation of benefits from your health insurance agency. If you notice something doesn’t look right, call your insurance provider and ask questions.

CONCLUSION

While many of these factors are beyond your control, you have the ability to lose weight, quit smoking, and move. Taking good care of your health and controlling the risk factors mentioned here reduces health insurance premiums now and in the future.

In addition, you can save money on your health insurance premiums by choosing higher deductibles. Review insurance quotes carefully; if you have to pay more out-of-pocket expenses for the benefits you use the most, even the cheapest plan might end up costing you more in the end. You can always in touch with our representative and compare the best prices. HAPPY SAVING

Khurram Zahid

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Why Health Insurance is NOT a Thing to Avoid

Khurram Zahid — Mon, 01 May 2017 05:00:57 +0000

Are you worried about your financial problems and your varying health patterns while having too much to deal with? Health insurance is the key to lighten up this extra burden in your life.

Health insurance is when you insure the availability of money via an insurance company of your choice, for the chance of an unfortunate circumstance such as an injury or an illness that requires a lot of money to be treated. In Pakistan, mostly salaried people or people who earn a mediocre amount of money pay a specified amount to insurance companies as per their packages to ensure that money is available to pay for health care. The company then holds responsibility to make the money available when you require it. Different companies offer different packages and you choose according to what you can afford and what you may want to attain in the time of need. Compare health insurance policies from different companies before deciding upon a specific plan.

Why is health insurance necessary?

Following are some of the factors that prove that health insurance is necessary in a capitalistic environment like ours:

1. The government and private healthcare division has created classes in the system itself and quality healthcare, in a developing country like Pakistan. Good healthcare can only be bought with money because the better it is the costlier it gets. To ensure recovery, a person spends as much money as possible on health and to be able to do that, money must be invested and saved for the sole purpose of meeting up with medical needs.

2. The working sector of Pakistan, or the middle class, do not pay as much attention on their health as they should because as it appears, they do not get the time to visit the doctor every once in a while, to get check-ups.

3. Personal level savings are not reliable in such cases because they are more subjected to be used for other purposes and it is very difficult to save up for separate uses at a domestic level. Generally, money is mostly saved without setting out goals or uses. The only way that remains is health insurance.

4. To think that medical expenses can be escaped is highly impractical since we live in a developing country like Pakistan where pollution, accidents, terrorist attacks, diseases like heart attack, high and low blood pressure and diabetes are very common. Health insurance in Pakistan will help remove a potential burden from your finance and will allow you to be worry-free from a very important and inevitable part of your life.

Hence, health insurance is very much necessary to meet up with your health needs as per requirement. It is easy to compare health insurance in Pakistan because all details are available online and health insurance quotes are also easily available. Anyone can research about different health insurance policies in no time.

Consequences of not getting health insurance

1. Risking precious lives due to lack of money:

The obvious consequence is not having enough money and ending up risking a life by not choosing to rely on health insurance.

2. The psychological pressure:

Unavailability of money would result in extended disease and that further would mean psychological pressure and would make you regret your decision of not getting a health insurance.

3. Use of other savings:

In such circumstances people use up their general domestic level savings having no other choice and little money is then left for emergency use or any other purposes you may require it for. Honestly, some health insurance policies are not even that expensive and you can easily check which ones suit your budget by comparing health insurance quotes.

4. Financial strain on the monthly budget:

Regular check ups will also put a dent on your monthly budget effecting your daily livelihood drastically.

The affordability of health insurance in Pakistan

To give you a summary as to how health insurance works and how is it therefore very much affordable, here is an overview of the steps to be followed:

1. The fact that you choose your own package as per your demands is what makes it affordable. Compare health insurance packages and policies of different companies and chose the one that you think is feasible for you and meets your needs. This would depend on the money you can offer to the company and how you can submit it, i.e. monthly, annually etc. Different companies offer a variety of policies that can even cover complete all medical expenses. Examples include family health-care plan to meet the medical needs of your family as a whole, personal injuries can also be covered along with expenses for in-home treatments of minor surgeries, services such as hiring an ambulance for transportation and burial costs for if in unfortunate cases the patient dies. Health insurance quotes ensure that you can look at which health insurance packages are most applicable for you.

2. After comparing health insurance and choosing it, all there is left to do is to buy the plan and submit investments as per your package and you will be saved from the extra effort of worrying yourself about your health expenditure.