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Health Insurance can be purchased on an individual basis, or obtained through your company if your employer offers a group health plan. An employer is required to contribute at least 50% of the employee's premium, and in some cases at least 75%.   Employers are not required to contribute to dependent premiums; although some do. It is becoming less feasible for employers to contribute to dependent premiums because of the cost associated with health insurance. Individual health plans are generally less expensive than group health plans. If your employer is not paying for dependent premiums, you should look into individual health plans as a cost saving alternative. In most all cases, going this route will save you money; however, here are some reasons that may prevent you from saving money via an individual plan:

1) Individual plans generally start to become less competitive in price when an individual reaches age 50+. Group health plan rates are based on the census of the group, which means all ages are combined together to calculate a premium for a particular group.   Younger employees/dependents help offset the cost of their older co-workers.
2) Maternity coverage is very difficult if not impossible to find on an individual plan. Therefore, if you or a family member is planning on having a child, it is usually in their best interest to stay with or obtain a group plan in order to be afforded the maternity coverage.
3) Anyone wanting to apply for individual health coverage must do just that -- APPLY! This means coverage is not granted (nor is it guaranteed) until an application has been submitted to the insurance company and an underwriter has medically underwritten the application. Anyone with health conditions present may be approved at a preferred rate, approved with a rate up for medical condition(s), approved with a "waiver/exclusion" on certain medical condition(s), or declined for coverage all together. It is very important that persons applying for individual coverage be relatively healthy, in order to have a good outcome in applying for individual coverage.

A good insurance agent can help decipher all of this for their client, and can help avoid some pitfalls that many people are not aware of when applying for coverage, or changing health plans.

If you would like to run a quote on health insurance plans please click here. Please contact us for a Consultation before proceeding to apply for a plan. There may be obstacles that you are not aware of regarding applying for a plan or changing health plans. We want to make sure you understand and maintain all of your rights when purchasing a plan through our agency. As an alternative, you may download the health questionnaire to left of this text and fax or e-mail it back to us. We can run quotes for you, as well as better advise you of any potential problems in underwriting.