Important things to know about health insurance deductibles that will help you save

Health insurance coverage prices continue to rise and many hard working people are scrambling to find ways to cut their health insurance costs. Whether a person is a company owner looking to save money on group health insurance, or an individual looking to cut their own expenses, wading through the many different health insurance options can turn into a full-time job. One way to help save money on health insurance is to play with the deductible on a given plan. Here are a few important things to know about health insurance deductibles that will help save money.

Health Savings Account

One important thing to know about health insurance deductibles is that, generally speaking, the higher the deductible the lower the cost of the insurance. While it may be tempting to just raise the deductible, this could put a family in a predicament in an emergency. One option is to use a Health Savings Account (HSA).

An HSA requires a high deductible and works similar to a retirement plan in that all of the money put into it can be done pretax or is tax deductible. The money put into the account is invested and grows as the economy does well. Then, if an approved medical expense arises, the person can use the money that has been growing in their HSA. The great thing about HSA's is that the money can be used on more services than may be covered in the high-deductible health insurance policy.

Comprehensive Deductibles

One way to save money through adjusting the deductible is to understand the different types of deductibles and choosing one that fits the needs of the person or family. A comprehensive deductible is a deductible that must be paid before the insurance company will cover any medical bills. The insured simply sends the insurance company all of the bills they have paid until they have reached the deductible. Then the insurance company will begin to pick up the tab on the percentage written in the policy. Most policies have an 80/20 percentage. That means that the insurance company will pay eighty percent of the bill and the insured will pick up the remaining twenty percent.

Non-Comprehensive Deductibles

Another type of deductible is the non-comprehensive deductible. This type of deductible has a more restricted list of services that will count toward the deductible. For instance, hospital visits or emergency room visits would count toward the deductible. Preventative care, or routine doctor's visits, would not count toward the deductible, but if it is written in the policy, the insured would just need to pay a co-pay for these services.

Cumulative Family Deductible

Cumulative family deductibles are another kind of deductible that may be a better fit for someone looking for insurance than the previous options. Unlike the comprehensive and non-comprehensive deductibles, the cumulative family deductible will have a single deductible that can be met by a combination of bills from different members of a family. The other deductibles must be met by individual people. This way a family of five will be able to have a lower deductible than if they had an individual deductible for each member. For example, a single person may have a one thousand dollar deductible. Multiplied by five, that becomes a very large deductible to meet. Luckily, family deductibles can be much lower, and therefore much more financially feasible for families.

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