Some tips about Health Insurance {Giveaway}

Fall is traditionally health insurance open enrollment season. You (and your family) may be evaluating what your health insurance options are — and it can be confusing! As a young growing family, there are several tips you can take to make sure all of your needs are covered.

Whether you receive employer-based health insurance coverage, are self-employed, or unemployed, rising medical costs and new laws make it a good time for everyone to reeducate themselves about their options.

To make the process a bit easier, NAIC has compiled the below tips to help you and your readers make educated health insurance decisions.

If you receive health insurance through an employer, consider the following before selecting coverage this year:·

• Review options for changes:  Don’t automatically renew what you have had before because employers are making changes due to rising costs.
• Do the math: To pick the best plan, calculate healthcare costs from recent years and try to estimate costs for the coming year; don’t assume you know what plan will be the most affordable.
• Check out tax-free savings: Open a Flexible Spending Account (FSA) plan or a health savings account if that is available to you. And, don’t forget about dependent care savings accounts.
• Look for wellness incentives: Find out if your employer is offering a wellness program or incentives for healthy behaviors such as exercising regularly or not smoking.

If you are self-employed, you face some unique challenges in finding and keeping health insurance, but you have a range of choices. Tax laws may allow you to deduct the cost of health insurance for yourself, your spouse and dependents.

• Spouse plan: First, check about being added to your spouse’s or domestic partner’s employer plan.
• Individual insurance: Consider shopping for private insurance. This option allows you to customize care to your lifestyle, health and budget. New Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plans could help if you have had trouble qualifying for coverage in the past.

If you are unemployed, you were likely forced to determine how, or if, to continue your health insurance coverage within the past year.

• Now is a good time to review your decision and determine if your choice is still appropriate and if you or your family members might be eligible for Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program
• Some professional or philanthropic associations offer state regulated health plans. For a fee, you can join these organizations and have the ability to participate in their plan.

For more information and what would be a better choice for you, be sure to go visit Health.InsureUonline.org. I know we just had to decide on what plan we will be using next year and it’s always a tough choice. The plans are offering less and the payments are going up, so this website definitely was a big help to us in making the final decision.

Now after making all those decisions on which health insurance plan may be the best for you, it’s time to get healthy as well and we will be giving away to one lucky reader an Sports Personal Heart Rate Monitor Watch ($36 value) to help with achieving a healthy lifestyle.

I received the same product as my winner for posting about this amazing event; no other compensation was nor will be received. All opinions if any are 100% my own; the winner will receive the prize through the PR company. Facebook is not associated with this giveaway and is hereby released from any and all liability.