How fast a serious illness or injury can lead to tens of thousands of dollars in related medical fees may shock you, and the need for Florida Health Insurance Plans to protect your assets and savings is an unfortunate reality. When you understand what options are available, you can take advantage of plans that fit your situation at the lowest cost.

What Are Managed Care Policies?

Health Insurance Plans in Florida that allow you to see any doctor you choose are inevitably more expensive than managed care policies, which limit your choice in doctors and hospitals. Healthcare providers differ in quality of technology and training so you don't want to greatly restrict your choices.

The key is to find a managed care policy with a broad spectrum of choices in doctors and hospitals. Fortunately, most major PPOs are accepted at 80 to 90 percent of U.S. medical facilities. These PPO plans can help you save even if you don't meet your annual deductible, and will only slightly limit the doctors and hospitals from which you can choose.

Balance Annual Deductibles Against Monthly Premiums

The deductible is how much you must spend before your Florida Health Insurance coverage begins. When you agree to pay for your own medical fees up to the amount of an annual deductible, you can buy policies with lower monthly premiums called high-deductible health insurance plans. Insurance companies offer these plans because they don't have to cover as many frequent, small charges as they do with lower-deductible plans. If you're in relatively good health and just want insurance for an unexpected medical catastrophe, the lower premiums can save you money.

Savings Accounts that Work with Florida Health Insurance Plans

Certain high-deductible health insurance plans are qualified to be combined with a health savings account (HSA). The money you deposit into a HSA earns interest tax-free, and you can deduct those contributions from your annual taxable income to reduce your income tax.

You can spend the money in your HSA for a wide variety of health-related expenses, including commonly-needed over-the-counter medicines, such as aspirin and cough syrup.

Good Health Means More Florida Health Insurance Savings

If you typically only see a doctor once or twice per year, you may save with a plan that does not have a co-payment for doctor visits. In other words, you pay the cost of any doctor visits yourself (minus any PPO discount you receive when you see an in-network doctor). Whatever you pay for doctor office visits will be applied toward your policies annual deductible.

If having your Florida Health Insurance pick up the cost of doctor office visits is costing you $25 every month, you may not break even unless you see a doctor eight times a year.

Comparing Health Insurance Plans in Florida Has Big Benefits

Shopping for health insurance may not be fun, but saving money is. If you use agents and/or websites that represent many Florida Health Insurance companies (and there are literally hundreds of plans), you'll see that there is a range of different rates. You may even find that you can get similar benefits for a lower monthly premium when your existing health insurance company notifies you of impending premium increases.

It's much easier to change policies while your health is relatively good for now. Hopefully, new legislation will limit health insurance companies from refusing to cover pre-existing conditions.