TUESDAY, JUNE 7, 2022
Health insurance in Iowa is expensive, just as it is in all parts of the country. Unless your job offers a group health insurance plan, or unless you belong to an organization that offers its members a group health insurance plan, you're going to have to find an individual plan that you can afford.
Finding such a plan is not easy. In fact, almost 17% of all Iowans can't afford any health insurance.
Before you join the ranks of the uninsured there are several things you can do that might bring the cost of health insurance back within your reach.
The first thing you can do is to stop smoking or using any form of tobacco product. Smokers pay more for health insurance. Period. If you were a smoker when you first purchased a health insurance policy but you have since given up the habit, let your insurance agent know and you will be pleased by the reduction in your monthly premium payment.
Being overweight is another cause of high health insurance premiums. Losing weight is even harder than quitting smoking for most people, but losing even a little weight could put you in a lower weight class and save you cash every single month.
Don't participate in extreme or dangerous sports or hobbies. If you go out of your way to put your health in jeopardy you can count on paying more for your health insurance every single month.
How much is your co-pay every time you visit your doctor? Increasing your co-pay means that you have to come up with more cash out of your own pocket any time you visit your doctor, but if you can afford a 50% co-payment then you can get a lower monthly insurance premium.
Similarly, how much can you afford to pay out of your own pocket each year for your medical bills before you even bother your insurance company? The more you can pay yourself – the higher your deductible – then the less you will need to pay every month in premiums.
An extreme version of this involves buying a very inexpensive super-high-deductible policy, with a deductible of $2,000 or more. These policies are very cheap but they seldom make any payments for routine doctor's visits or even most out-patient surgeries or other procedures. What value are they, then?
A super-high-deductible policy is designed to protect your home and other assets if you should suffer a catastrophic accident or illness that runs up medical bills in the tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Now that you have a better idea of what you can do to finesse your policy and get the best rates on health insurance in Iowa, it's time for you to get online and find several websites that will let you make head-to-head comparisons of policies and their prices from a variety of different insurance companies.
Keep in mind that none of the websites let you compare every insurance company, so if you are truly serious about finding the best deal then you'll need to take the extra time to make your comparisons on at least 3 different websites. Once you have done that then you can feel confident that you have found the very best policy for you at the very lowest price possible.
Happy hunting!