0 How to Save Money When Buying Your Own Health Insurance?

Health insurance is an important asset – and it’s one that you’ll soon be required to have. However, not everyone has the best health insurance benefits through their employer. The premiums may be too high, or the coverage may be insufficient. Therefore, they may look into buying their own health insurance. Others may be self-employed or unemployed and not have access to employer-sponsored health benefits.

While buying your own health insurance will give you the protection you need in case you become ill or injured, it can also be expensive. Premiums can easily top $1,000 a month, depending on where you live, the size of your family, and your personal health profile. Finding ways to cut back your premiums is important to helping you maintain your budget and your financial health. Here are a few ideas for how you can save money when buying your own health insurance:

Maintain Good Health

The best way to get the lowest health insurance premiums is to maintain good health. When you get a quote for insurance, you will be asked about your weight, your lifestyle habits (such as your exercise, whether you smoke and how much you drink), and any health issues you have experienced. The better your health, the better the rates you will be given. Of course, the better your health, the better your quality of life will be, as well.

Get a Lot of Quotes

There are many insurance providers for you to choose from, and it pays to get quotes from several of them to make sure that you are getting the best rates possible. It’s easy to get rate quotes online. You can fill out your personal details and get an estimated quote, which you can confirm when you follow up with an agent. The more companies you contact, the more competitive the quotes will be. 

It also doesn’t hurt to mention the rate you’ve been quoted from another company. Some companies may be inclined to find more discounts for you to compete.

Check into Discounts for Professional Affiliations

Even if you do not work full-time for a company, you may still be able to join a professional organization. For example, there are many professional groups for freelance writers. By joining these groups, you often get access to perks such as discounted health insurance. These organizations negotiate a group discount, which you can use to save on your quote. 

Choose Higher Deductibles

When you become ill or injured, you will often have to meet a deductible for your medical expenses before your insurance benefits become effective. By choosing a higher deductible, you can lower your premiums. Since routine well visits are automatically covered, you usually would only be paying towards this deductible if you became seriously ill or injured. In many cases, your medical bills will far outweigh the deductible, so you’ll still be saving money.

Of course, you’ll need to make sure you have the savings put aside to pay the deductible if the need arises. Choose an amount that you know you’ll be able to maintain in savings.

Open an HSA

A health-savings account allows you to make contributions tax-free that can be used for your medical expenses. This allows you to bring home more money in your paycheck, effectively creating a “discount” on your medical care. When you open an HSA, you also often qualify for discounts on your premiums. The HSA works a bit like a deductible, helping you to offset medical expenses that are not covered by your insurance.

Buying your own health insurance coverage can be expensive, but it doesn’t have to be. You can use these tips to help you get the coverage you need at a price that fits your budget.

About the Author:

Bridget Sandorford is a freelance food and culinary writer at www.culinaryschools.org. In her spare time, she enjoys biking, painting and working on her first cookbook.

0 Mortgage Forecast for 2013

In 2013, the mortgage industry has the potential for change for lenders, brokers and consumers.

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) and the lenders and intermediaries in the mortgage market are closer to establishing a workable set of guidelines with an emphasis on affordability and solid underwriting standards.

Lenders, not brokers, under the proposed guidelines, assume the role of assessing whether a consumer qualifies for a home loan. Credit is issued only under the circumstance when a borrow demonstrates a strong probability of meeting payments without dependence on rising housing prices.

Future fluctuations in interest rate are also considered when determining affordability. Borrowers are discouraged to enter agreements where they assume low interest rates will exist infinitely.

Customers who undertake interest-only mortgages must prove credible resources to meet the repayment schedule as well, outside of considering potential rising property values.

The institution is also working on establishing guidelines for business owners who raise capital via home equity loans to fund their entrepreneurial ventures.

Chairman of the FSA, Lord Adair Turner, believes these measures ensure enhanced lending practices in the future when memories of the past crisis fade and the temptation to engage in more risky credit practices reappears.

The FSA encourages the implementation of these new guidelines for 2013, enabling them to be established prior to future growth in the economy.

Mortgage industry leaders like Paul Broadhead at the Building Societies Association believe these measures protect the consumer, while also giving lenders proper discretion in determining credit-worthy customers.

Others remain skeptical, like Charles Haresnape, managing director at Aldermore Residential Mortgages, who is concerned why intermediaries have been given a pass to determine affordability in giving counsel.

Grenville Turner, chief executive of Countrywide, favors the measures to clarify which party is responsible for determining affordability, but he thinks the timing of the new standards is questionable.

He fears that the current market climate inhibits 39 of 40 potential customers from qualifying for  mortgage loans. To prevent further market sluggishness, he argues lenders need to become more flexible in assessing affordability for new applicants notwithstanding a solution for the self-employed and current homeowners trapped in negative equity.

The timing aside, the FSA seeks ways to facilitate the process for consumers navigating the mortgage application process. To reduce a daunting abundance of information, the organization has streamlined its prescribed disclosure requirements for lending institutions. These entities are mandated to share 'key messages' with the potential customer at the appropriate time, instead of using the Initial Disclosure Document (IDD).

Independent firms, according to the new FSA guidelines, are no longer mandated to offer their customers a ‘fee only' option. They must disclose to consumers whether they are mining direct-only agreements. Should these intermediaries desire to propose a direct-only deal, the FSA wants to eliminate the mandate to disclose a Key Facts Illustration, thereby streamlining the process for the intermediary.

In addition, lending firms must consider whether rolling fees into a credit agreement is suitable. Should the customer desire this method, the lender must move forward with the loan in this matter.

For non deposit taking institutions, the FSA seeks to implement capital requirements for these types of lenders. Non-bank institutions must abide by a more risk-based criteria, where the capital requirement is augmented. Subsequently, these firms will have to establish protocols and controls to manage their liquidity risk judiciously.

The FSA seeks to streamline processes for niche markets in lending as well, thereby galvanizing the entire industry. Under consideration are equity release products like lifetime mortgages and home reversion plans, high net worth lending, sale and rent back, home purchase loans, business lending and bridging finance. The FSA desires to establish clear guidelines for the niche markets as it does in the conventional mortgage arena, ultimately providing a consistent, straight criteria for its affordability standards, income requirements and other pertinent factors in determining credit worthiness.