Generally, people that are looking to lower rates fall into two categories. The first category are people who are currently insured and just received a rate increase. The second are people whose employer increased their contribution allowance or how much the employee (you) pay each month to stay on the employer's plan. Let's start with the second category first.

If you are paying increasing amounts to remain on your employer group plan, you need to consider a few things first before shopping for lower rates. First, do you or anyone in your family have a serious pre-existing condition? These include things like diabetes, extreme obesity, take 2 or more medications daily, heart attacks, etc., If you have any of these things you will be better to stay with your employer group and not switch.

Exception: If you the employee has a serious pre-existing condition but your spouse and kids do not, chances are your spouse and kids will be able to qualify for a better individual/family insurance policy. These policies have cost savings of upwards of 50% or more as compared to your group plan. You can quote these plans for your spouse and children directly from covermi's website.

If you currently have individual/family health insurance and are looking to lower rates you already know the drill. You can always raise your deductible and lower your benefits this will make your rates decrease. However, you already know all that. What can you really do? You need to re-shop your health insurance plan. If you are with an insurance company other than Blue Cross Blue Shield, Unicare, or Humana you will need to re shop your rates after the 2nd year of your contract. We have a podcast dedicated to this whole story. It's called "Dirty Little Secrets The Insurance Companies Don't Tell You" We invite you to listen to it and it's companion "How To Outsmart the Insurance Companies"