Saving on Health and Life Insurance

Understanding health and life insurance in the United States is not a simple affair. Unlike nearly all industrialized countries (including all of Europe, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa to name a few), the United States does not have nationalized health care for all citizens--yet.

Over the next few years, the political change in the US could lead to a universal health care program, but for now, in order to obtain health or life insurance the individual must purchase a plan from a private vendor.

By some estimates, around 50 million US citizen are uninsured, and failure to understand the US insurance system is one cause for many of these individuals being uninsured. But you might be relieved to know that it is possible to get reasonable rates on both health and life insurance policies, assuming you know how the system works, and where to look.

In this article we will explore some of the ways to lower your health and life insurance costs with a few time-proven methods to ensure you pay less for your coverage.

To decide your insurance rate, insurers use certain factors to determine risk. Each insurer will have a slightly different formula to determine these factors, but they will all be added into an overall assessment of the company's risk in insuring you. This assessment will determine how much your health and life insurance will cost overall, and the individual rate you will pay.

The following risk factors will increase your rates on any health or life insurance policy and should be taken into consideration:

Smoking or the use of tobacco based products is a major factor in determining insurance rates. As a major cause of disease worldwide, smoking is one of the most expensive habits you can have when it comes to your insurance rates.

Quitting smoking is probably the single most important thing an individual can do to lower both their health and life insurance rates. You'll also enjoy a much healthier life by quitting smoking now.

Participating in a dangerous sport or activity on a regular basis increases your risk to insurers. In an attempt to protect their profitability, they are likely to hit you with ridiculously high rates for your insurance. Basically, if you plan to be involved with high-risk activities or dangerous sports, you can not realistically expect reasonable rates of either health or life insurance policies.

High-risk professions will also cause your insurance rates to go through the roof. Divers, oil-rig workers and certain overseas contractors are known to have very high insurance rates, or in some cases, an insurance provider may simply refuse to issue you a policy while you remain in the dangerous occupation. Changing to a lower-risk occupation will normally bring your rates down to a reasonable level.

Visit a minimum of three different insurance companies when seeking a quote. To save time, you can also comparison shop for health and life insurance online--and normally it will take only a few minutes to obtain a preliminary quote.

Following these simple guidelines and shopping around for competitive quotes could potentially save you hundreds on both your health and life insurance.