There are currently 45.8 million Americans that don’t have health insurance, according to the Census Bureau survey results. Among these, 60% have full time jobs and 3.5 million earn more than $75,000 annually. There are a lot of people without health insurance coverage, like the self employed, who are taking a big risk by not getting covered because they are afraid of the high cost of personal health insurance plans.
Yes, health insurance is an extra expense, but the cost involved with just one severe injury can greatly surpass the cost of any annual health care plan. Health insurance doesn’t have to be outrageously expensive. There are some ways that everyone can decrease their monthly health insurance costs.
First of all, try to stay at a healthy weight. If you are able to maintain your weight within the average range for your height and age, this can help you qualify for the lowest health insurance rates. On the other hand, being morbidly obese can cause insurance rates to climb by as much as 7 times the quoted rate.
Then there is the issue of tobacco use. What should you do if you smoke or chew? Well, it is plain and simple; just don’t use tobacco period! Using any kind of tobacco can bring your insurance rates by as much as 30%! This substantial increase should tell you just how damaging tobacco use is to your health. So, if you smoke and you stop, you can kill two birds with one stone, so to speak, because your health will improve tremendously and you can bring down your health care costs.
Now let’s talk about Type 2 Diabetes. Insurance for people with this condition, is automatically 30% higher – and that is with a healthy A1C. People who have an unhealthy A1C may even have to pay more. The good news is that in most cases, eating right, exercising and controlling your weight can cause this dreaded disease to just disappear.
Next, we all are under a lot of stress, especially during these difficult economic times. But instead of depending on anti-depressants and anti-stress medications, try to find natural ways to deal with stress and anxiety. Using anti-depressants and anti-stress medications are big health insurance rate increases. Illnesses due to stress are one of the stimulating elements in driving up health care costs. Check out different ways other than medicine to bring your stress down, like lifestyle changes, yoga and meditation.
Finally there is the cholesterol issue. Having high cholesterol and other risk factors for heart disease can cause insurance rates to increase significantly. So what can you do? Eating healthy, exercising and monitoring your cholesterol can all help to reduce your risk for getting heart disease.