People are having to pay increasing health insurance premiums every year. Many people are finding that they cannot afford the cost of insurance despite understanding the need for health insurance coverage. What are the ways of lowering the cost of health insurance premiums?

First, it is important to know that lowering the cost of insurance and lowering cost of health care for individuals and families are not the same. The cost of health care spreads across the entire population, while the cost of insurance is borne by the individuals.

Next point to note is that those in the “sicker” category or in the group over age 65, can probably get health coverage less expensively than what they pay now.

Those in fairly good health or have access to more than one plan through their employers can have some amount of control over their individual costs of insurance, including the premiums, deductibles and co-pays as described below:

1. Spend some time doing the actual calculations to choose the best plan when it is time to change insurance coverage. This could be each year during the health insurance enrollment period for the next year, if you switch jobs or whatever other reason. The health insurance premiums may not be the biggest part of your care depending on your needs.

2. Look into high-deductible, catastrophic care insurance as they have much lower health insurance premiums. This works well for people who are mostly healthy. The other plus point is that if you take one of these plans, you can also select to use a Health Savings Account, and with this account you can make your health expenses tax-deductible. This helps you to save money that may be needed later for health expenses besides paying lesser amount in premiums to the insurer.