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If you are sick and tired of the high cost of health insurance. Then find out some tips here for affordable individual & family health insurance. :
• Consider plans with higher deductibles.
• Health insurance? by definition, it is protecting your health by means of a financial safety net. A good health plan, even one with a higher deductible, can give you that protection. Let's look at some actual prices. A 40 year old in good health can get a Blue Shield PPO with a $1,500 deductible for $418 per month. Raising the deductible to $2,000 lowers the premium to $272. That's a 54% savings which amounts to $1,752 in a year! Just for raising the deductible by $500. As a bonus, many of these types of plans will waive the deductible for routine office visits, routine physicals, and generic drugs.
• The HSA plans.
• a new type of plan has become available. These are called HSA (Health Savings Account) eligible plans. They are low cost, high deductible health plans that also offer outstanding tax benefits. For example, a 40 year-old with a family in Sacramento, all in good health, can get the Blue Cross PPO3500 HSA for $280 per month. That's health insurance for a family for $280! On top of that the tax benefits are substantial. With prices so high these days, soon the HSA plans are going to be very popular.

• Maternity? drop it.
You can lower your premium by choosing a plan without maternity. For example, a 40 year old in good health in San Diego will pay $349 per month for the Blue Shield PPO 1500. But the price for the Blue Shield Balance 1700, a similar plan without maternity, is $170. That's a monthly savings of $179. And remember, for family coverage, not everyone has to be on the same plan. To lower your cost you can get a plan with maternity for the person who needs it and a plan without maternity for the other family members.
• Caution about Basic & Hospital Coverage: Please note that the super low prices are tempting, but there is a risk. You can rack up huge medical bills without ever stepping foot in a hospital, if that's all that's affordable at the present time, it's better than nothing, and you can try to upgrade when finances allow you.
• HMO's vs. PPO's.
If you're looking for good quality insurance at the lowest possible price and you don't mind a deductible, then a PPO will be cheaper. If you want the richest possible benefits with little or no deductible, then you might consider an HMO. Remember, though, an HMO is less flexible and there are more restrictions on which doctors you can use.
• Get help Now without Delay.
For affordable health insurance, sometimes it helps to talk with a professional. Make a few phone calls. Find an experienced, friendly health plan broker that offers several different companies. It won't cost you anything (we're paid by the insurance carriers), but it will probably save you time, money, and frustration.

HSA
Using an HSA as a saving vehicle for future expenses verses using funds in the HSA to immediately reimburse medical expenses. The article implied that it was an either/or choice.
Many HSA users are unaware that the IRS allows HSA investors to be both Savers and Spenders.
the Entrust Group, provides continuing education classes to employers, employees, and professional advisors, teaching about the rules related to HSAs and HDHPs. Surprisingly, few advisors and even fewer users really understand how the HSA works.
Contrary to this there is no time requirement for taking HSA distributions for medical expenses. HSA owners who elect to pay their medical expenses out of their personal funds may, rather than immediately taking a reimbursement for those costs from their HSAs, defer the reimbursement until they really need the cash. In the mean time, the funds continue to grow tax free. The longer the funds remain under the shelter of the HSA, the more they can grow. Today's eyeglasses can be paid for out of pocket, and subsequently reimbursed by the HSA, the next day, the next year, or 20 years from now. The choice is up to the HSA owner. Thus, if an individual can comfortably pay the expense personally, then there is really no reason to take the money from the HSA. The tax payer is not giving up the chance to take a reimbursement by delaying it. Hence fueled by additional funds, the HSA may search for longer term, higher yield investments. Our clients, who tend to be longer term investors favor this approach as it allows for more stability in the account balance and potential growth. Similarly, many taxpayers don't realize that expenses incurred in excess of the HSA balance may be reimbursed in subsequent years. The one requirement is that the HSA had to have been established prior to the expense being incurred. Unfortunately, the IRS form 8889 doesn't show these "carry-forward expenses" nor are many tax preparers able to help clients track the expenses that have not yet been reimbursed.
keeping track of these un-reimbursed expenses is critical to determining how much of the HSA balance is eligible for immediate tax free distribution, our firm has created an "Un-reimbursed Expense Tracking System" to help our clients organize and document their un-reimbursed expenses. on the use of an HSA for long term investments or join us for a Webex seminar to introduce the basics of HSA/High Deductible Health Plan combinations. Bill Humphrey, one of the principals of Entrust New Direction IRA in Colorado, (www.NewDirectionIRA.com) has been a crusader for Health Savings Accounts since their creation in 2004. Bill is a Colorado CPA and has worked on developing educational programs for CPAs and health plan users to clarify the understanding and use of the HSA. Entrust New Direction has programs available live and over the internet for HSA users and employers anticipating adopting High Deductible Health Plans for their companies.