They remain to increase at a much higher rate than the overall inflation rate or the rate of wage increase. This puts a growing financial pressure on the people and families who are willing to continue being insured. Fortunately, there are some tip that you can follow in order to minimize the amount of money you spend on health insurance but without having to compromise on the benefits or the coverage. Below are the top ten tips that can help one to save money on health insurance premiums.

1. Select a higher deductible plan

Perhaps, the best thing you can do is to choose a plan with a higher deductible and lower premium payment. The tradeoff is that you will have to spend more of your own money on care before your insurance starts to pay. However, for people in good health, a high deductible health plan (HDHP) results in greater monthly savings. Just ensure that you have the amount required in your Health Savings Account (HSA) or an emergency fund to cater for the initial amount in case you need it.

2. Seek Pre-Qualification During Open Enrollment

It is important always to shop for other plan options during your open enrollment period with other insurers. Insurance costs and the services within the plan can differ between providers and plans. Hence, do not rush into making a change, but rather compare new offerings to what you currently have. The thought of switching your current provider for another may result in you saving up to hundreds or even thousands of dollars per year. However, you should also know about your provider networks, drugs, and out-of-pocket expenses.

3. Select an HMO or EPO Plan
Sometimes HMO and EPO plans offered by the insurance companies have relatively low premiums compared to those of PPO plans. The tradeoff is that your selection of the doctor and hospitals you can access will have to be from the network. However, if you are able to work with the providers in the list, then restricted options means big savings on insurance costs.

4. Participate in Employer Sponsored

Employers have started providing monetary rewards and lower insurance costs for those who take part in wellness programs. These may be health risk assessments, smoking cessation, preventive health screenings, monitoring of physical activity and participation in weight management or chronic disease self-management programs. Opting for these employer-provided options can lead to a saving of anything between $10-50 per month on insurance costs in most cases.

5. Get Preventive Care

The ACA has mandated that many preventive services ought to be provided free of cost by health insurance plans. This entails vaccine for children and adults, cancer related examination and treatment, testing for cholesterol, some medications, women’s health and annual physical checkups. Thus, getting regular checkups and staying as healthy as possible will ensure that there are no expensive health conditions that will in future cause your monthly premiums to escalate because of the many claims you have made. 

6. Automate and Bundle Payments

Some of the insurance carriers’ discount options include those insurance policies that are paid by automatic deductions from the bank accounts. Preferably, the companies offer slightly lower monthly rates for paperless billing statements as opposed to the ones that are printed. Another way through which you can make savings on your insurance premiums is through obtaining several policies from the same insurer including health, auto and home insurance policies.  

7. Compare Spousal Plan Options

If both you and your spouse have health insurance through work, compare the two plans to determine which one offers superior and less costly benefits because family insurance plans are almost always much more expensive than those for individuals. It is possible to find that including your partner as a dependent in the plan or vice versa is cheaper than insurance of the entire family under one plan.    

8. Energy conservation

If you have a household income below 400% of FPL, you will be eligible for premium tax credits under ACA to help you in paying for health insurance via your state marketplace or the federal marketplace. Depending on your age, zip code, income, and family size you could be eligible for large subsidies from the government that can slash your monthly rates.  

9. Select a plan with savings accounts

Other forms of consumer-driven health plans include the high-deductible health plans with health savings accounts, which have already been discussed in detail above. These are Health Reimbursement Arrangements (HRAs) and Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs). Funds deposited in these pre-tax accounts can be used to pay for deductibles, prescriptions, dental care or vision costs without being taxed.  

10. Discuss New Plan Offerings Every Year 

It will be helpful to look for new plans and carriers each year during the open enrollment period. This is due to the fact that new competition has emerged and the risk pool constantly changes; therefore, the premiums are also variable from the year to year. Therefore, shopping around annually and switching providers if better deals exist remains the best and simplest way of reducing what you pay but at the same time maintaining adequate coverage. 
The Bottom Line

Again, health insurance premiums are still increasing at a rate faster than the overall inflation rate. However, implementing some of the above savings strategies could help to mitigate higher costs especially to individuals in good health but willing to take on more risk by agreeing to higher deductibles and limited provider networks. Reducing monthly expenses gives you some monetary ease and you can channel such dollars to other health requirements.