The high cost of medical insurance here in Arizona is driving thousands of individuals and families to scramble frantically for cheap high risk medical insurance. If you are among those frantically searching for it that you can afford there is some good news. There are there specific actions you can take to reduce the cost of your traditional medical insurance, often by 25% or even more!

Let's start with some simple steps you can take. Paying your premium automatically from your savings or checking account every month saves the insurance company the cost of sending you a bill and they are happy to pass a good portion of that savings on to you.

You can also save a lot (and feel better) if you eat right and get some exercise. If you're really serious about saving money on it then get serious about dropping fast food restaurants and getting some exercise. You know that eating high calorie, high fat hamburgers and French fries isn't good for you. You know that they contribute to weight problems, high blood pressure, diabetes and a whole host of other ills. So stop eating at places like that. The healthier you are the less you're going to need medical care and the less you are going to pay for your health insurance.

And get a little exercise. Just walking around the block a few times each week, or riding a bike to do a few errands, or joining a group that walks around the mall in the mornings... ANYTHING that will get you on your feet and moving will be a help.

If you don't see your doctor often why not increase your co-payment from 25% to 50%? Doing that will save you quite a bit on the cost of your health insurance premium.

Similarly, if you can afford to increase your yearly deductible you can save a lot on the monthly cost of your health insurance.

And one of the surest ways of saving money and finding the cheapest health insurance is to buy your insurance online. It's true. Online sellers have a huge advantage over their brick and mortar cousins because they have almost no overhead and so they are able to pass tremendous savings on to you. In fact, you can sometimes save as much as 25% simply by buying it online.

If you are looking for cheap medical insurance companies here in Alabama there's really only one place for you to look, and that's online. Online sellers of insurance have almost no overhead and so they can pass truly remarkable savings along to you. The super good news is that there are simple ways for you to save even MORE!

One thing you can do is to pay your monthly premium automatically each month out of your savings or checking account. If your insurance company doesn't have to send you a costly bill every month they can afford to reduce the cost of your medical insurance.

If you don't see your doctor often then it can really pay for you to increase your co-payment from 25% to 50%.

Likewise, you can save money on your medical insurance instantly if you increase your deductible. Just be careful that you don't increase your deductible past the point at which you can afford to pay it.

And speaking of high deductibles, one of the newest forms of cheap medical insurance is called a Health Savings Account, or an HSA. This is a special savings account that you fill with cheap tax-free dollars. You use those tax-free dollars to pay for all of your medical costs.

You also use those tax-free dollars to pay for a cheap super-high-deductible medical insurance policy. This cheap policy will have a deductible so high that in a typical year it won't pay even a penny toward any of your medical bills - that's what you use the tax-free savings account for.

Where these policies come in handy is if you should suffer a catastrophic illness or accident that runs up medical bills into the tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of dollars - something that can happen in the blink of an eye.

Without one of these cheap medical policies you would be forced to wipe out your life savings, you might have to sell your home and you might even be driven into bankruptcy.

So check out all of your alternatives - but when it comes time to buy your medical insurance you really NEED to buy it online. You'll save even more money when you buy your insurance online if you take the time to review prices from a number of medical insurance price comparison websites and not rely on the results from just one site.

So happy hunting - and remember, if you take the time to look carefully online you really and truly CAN fine health insurance at prices you probably never dreamed possible.

If you want to find affordable high risk medical insurance here in Alabama you really only have one choice: you need to look online. Online health insurance sellers have almost no overhead and so they are able to pass that rather substantial savings directly to you. However, if you really want to save as much money as possible there are a few simple things you can do that will save you even MORE.

One of the simplest things you can do is to pay your monthly premium automatically each month out of your savings or checking account. This saves the insurance company the cost of sending you an expensive bill every month - and so they pass along the savings along to you.

Don't participate in dangerous or extreme sports or hobbies. If you are going to go out of your way to put your health at risk you certainly can't expect an insurance company to offer you cheap health insurance.

Likewise, if you smoke or use chew you can't think in your wildest dreams that you are ever going to get affordable health insurance. If you want affordable health insurance one cost you are going to have to pay is to quit smoking or using chew.

For many people the most affordable high risk medical insurance is one of the relatively new Health Savings Accounts - also known as an HSA account. These are special savings accounts which you fund with cheap tax-free dollars. You can only use these accounts to pay for medical expenses.

Any tax-free money left in your account at the end of the year can be rolled over into the next year, allowing you to potentially build up a rather nice tax-free nest egg over time.

These accounts come with a very low-cost and super-high-deductible health insurance policy. These policies have such a high deductible that they almost never pay for any of your medical needs in a normal year - that's what the tax-free savings account is for. What these low-cost policies do is they protect your life savings and they protect you from the possibility of being forced to sell your home in the event that you suffer some sort of cataclysmic event, such as a serious illness or a catastrophic accident that runs up medical bills in the tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of dollars overnight.

But whether you decide on an HSA account or you decide to go with a more traditional health insurance policy, one thing remains constant - you are going to get the very lowest rates if you buy your health insurance online.

Don't rely on the results you get from just one of the many health insurance price comparison websites out there. Each site only shows you the prices from a small handful of insurance companies. If you want to see the widest range of available prices open to you then you'll have to run your price comparisons on at least 3 different sites.

As soon as you've done that, however, then your job is virtually done. All that's left is for you to choose the most affordable high risk medical insurance you've found - and know that you are now saving as much money every single month as you possibly can!

For most people medical insurance here in Alabama seems extremely expensive. In fact, medical insurance is now so expensive that fully 16% of all Alabama residents can't afford any medical coverage at all. The good news is there are several simple things you can do that will make YOUR cost of health insurance much more affordable.

One thing you can do is to pay your monthly premium automatically from your checking or savings account. If your insurance company doesn't have to send you an expensive bill every month they are going to pass that savings along to you.

Don't smoke or use chew - or any other tobacco product for that matter. It should come as no surprise this late in the game that if you smoke or use chew you'll never qualify for the cheapest high risk medical insurance available. If you're serious about saving money on your medical insurance then you're going to have to be equally as serious when it comes to quitting all tobacco products.

If you don't see a doctor on a regular basis then it will probably pay off handsomely for you if you increase your co-payment from 25% to 50%.

Increasing your deductible to the highest level you can afford to pay each year will also decrease your monthly cost of health insurance. Obviously care must be taken that you don't agree to pay a higher deductible than you can actually afford.

If you're after the absolutely cheapest high risk health insurance you may want to consider a Health Savings Account, or HSA. This is a special savings account that you can only use to pay for your medical expenses using non-taxed dollars, which saves you at least 25% off the cost of your medical care.

These accounts come with a very low-cost super-high-deductible health insurance policy. These policies have deductibles of at least $1,200 to $2,400 so these policies are not going to pay for any of your health care needs during a typical year. These policies are only used if you should suffer some sort of catastrophic accident or major illness that costs you tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical bills. Then your low-cost high-deductible policy will save your life savings and even save you from being forced to sell your home.

You can also save a lot of money on your health insurance if you buy it online. Online health insurance sellers have virtually no overhead and so they are able to pass tremendous savings along to you.
In order to get the very best price possible online you'll need to see as many comparison health insurance prices as possible from as many different insurance companies as possible. The way you do that is you must make your price comparisons on several different sites and not rely on the results from just one site.

But do check out the prices online because that is where you are always going to find your best deals.

A high deductible major medical insurance plan is a relatively new kind of plan that can save you money every month on your premium. If you're in the market for health care coverage, you should investigate whether a high deductible major medical plan is right for you.

What is high deductible major medical insurance?

These are plans that offer low-cost coverage for serious injuries or illnesses. With these plans you select the level of deductible you want, usually ranging from $500 to $10,000. You pay all your medical expenses until you reach the deductible. After that, your insurer pays your medical expenses, often up to 100%.

These plans are often coupled with a medical savings account, in which you regularly deposit funds to help cover your medical expenses until you meet your deductible.

Why choose a high deductible major medical plan?

The major reason for choosing this plan is that it can save you money on your monthly premiums. In fact, your monthly premiums can be half of what you would pay for a traditional health care plans.

If you do choose one of these plans, you need to be sure that you can afford to pay the full deductible should you have an accident or serious illness.

As the year-end approaches, the providers again face the participation-non-participation dilemma because status change notifications are accepted until January 1 only. The doctor must choose between higher reimbursements and patient collections or lower reimbursement and direct deposit. The choice is complicated because the Congress has not yet completed the debates about an upcoming 10.1% Medicare cut to physicians. The Congress delay and the unprecedented cut size dramatize the possibility of being locked for another year under a newly reduced fee schedule and raise the urgency and importance of this decision.

"Unless Congress takes immediate action ... Medicare will begin across-the-board cuts on January 1," said AMA President Ron Davis, MD. "Congressional action is not guaranteed, so physicians interested in changing their Medicare participation status for 2008 should review the information now, fill out the forms and prepare to mail them prior to December 31," (http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2007/12/24/gvl11224.htm).

The physician has three options about participating in Medicare, namely, participation (PAR), non-participation (non-PAR), and private contracting:

1. Participation: The physician participating in Medicare (PAR) agrees to standard--and possibly reduced in 2008--Medicare fees for every submitted claim. The participating doctor gives up the right to "balance-bill" patients for the difference between the standard Medicare fee and doctor's "reasonable and customary" fee. But payment timing predictability and the convenience of direct deposit using electronic file transfer (EFT) are major participation decision factors: first, Medicare typically pays the "clean" claims submitted electronically within 14 days since claim submission, and second, Medicare pays the physician directly.
2. Non-Participation: The non-participating physicians (non-PAR) can decide on a per-patient basis to accept the reduced fee (accept "assignment") or balance-bill patients up to 15% more. Therefore, the non-PAR physician that balance-bills every patient, may receive up to 9.25% more than a PAR doctor for the same services. The downside of non-PAR is that Medicare reimburses the patient directly and the physician must invoice the patient for the full amount: the payment, co-payment and balance-billing charge. If the physician postpones invoicing the patient until the patient receives reimbursement from the insurance, the doctor risks collection problems with financially irresponsible patients.
3. Private contracting: Private contracting means that physicians opt out of Medicare completely for at least two years. During these two years, neither the opted-out physicians nor their patients can bill Medicare for any services.

Other par-non-par decision considerations:

1. Collections work-around: The number of collection problems from patients may be negligent or it can be completely eliminated the physician who collects the entire fee at the time of visit.
2. Saving grace: Financing out-of-pocket fees for more needy patients with higher fees collected from balance-billed patients might be the saving grace alternative to turning away patients.
3. Patient perception: Patients who are used to all of their medical costs covered by a system of primary, secondary (and perhaps tertiary) insurance companies, might protest higher out of pocket fees.

Note also that "participation dilemma" is not exclusive to Medicare. While some insurance companies, e.g., Oxford (United Healthcare) and Cigna still send checks to non-PAR doctors, others, like Horizon BCBS, penalize non-PAR doctors by paying directly to patients.

An AMA document (www.ama-assn.org/ama1/pub/upload/mm/399/medicarepayment08.pdf) outlines participation options and status change procedures."With a 10% cut about to be imposed, many physicians may consider balance billing an extra 9% as one means of helping close the gap between 2007 and 2008 payment amounts," the document says. "When considering whether to be non-PAR, however, physicians should consider whether their total revenues from Medicare, including amounts the program pays, patient co-pays and balance billing, would exceed their total revenues as PAR physicians, particularly in light of collection costs, bad debts and claims for which they do accept assignment."

The pressures and the steep learning curve required of the newly graduated chiropractic doctor are nothing short of monumental because of the mounting complexities of the business in an increasingly hostile billing environment defined by insurance companies bent on minimizing payouts to doctors. The coach has become a critical element of the chiropractor's team - a consultant with experience and leadership in the field - who mentors the new chiropractor through this minefield of potential revenue-chewing issues. The enlightened coach uses automated systems that collect and segregate data among all client practices, allowing them to more easily identify and address problem areas.

This is the third article in the series of three articles focused on automated coach assistants. The first article presented an overview of the issue, touching on automated coaching assistance need, features and networking. The second article focused on specific practice issues and data collected, and how this helps the coach identify problems. The last article in this series focuses on the networking effect (Metcalfe's law).

Automated coach assistance systems (CoachMate) address every aspect of chiropractic office workflow management. CoachMate stores information for each client in a coach's database within a central repository, providing a single point of contact via the Internet to both aggregate and individual patient information. The coach can then take a universal perspective when evaluating trainee performance in the aggregate, flagging deviations and isolating the trainee who is most in need of coaching advice promptly, meaningfully, and efficiently.

CoachMate's value to the coach and to each of the student doctors grows in step with the number of chiropractors that subscribe to the coach's service, creating the "network effect." The network effect, according to Wikipedia, "causes a good or service to have a value to a potential customer which depends on the number of other customers who own the good or are users of the service." For example, by purchasing a telephone, a person makes other telephones more useful - and therefore more valuable to their users - by virtue of expanding the network. A telephone without a network of other telephones is worthless, nothing more than plastic and silicone. In other words, the more players on the team, the more value to each player. Thus, a consequence of a network effect is that the purchase of a service by one individual indirectly benefits others who use the same service. This bandwagon effect is an example of a positive feedback loop, an essential aspect of the network effect.

The network effect (also known as Metcalfe's Law) says that while the system's costs are proportional to the number of submitted claims, the value is far greater than the sum of the participants - proportional, in fact, to the square of the number of practice owners using it. For example, when you multiply the number of users by ten, the coach's system-wide cost goes up by a factor of ten while the value goes up a hundredfold. The hundredfold increase in true value represents the possible number of relationships between one piece of data to another - with ten users, there are 100 possible relationships among them. In other words, Metcalfe's law - as applied to CoachMate - says that the value to the individual practice owner and the coach using it is proportional to the number of other practice owners (N) sharing the same knowledge base and processes. The more participants, the greater the value to the extent that the number of possible value-providing relationships has been raised significantly, to a factor of N-squared.

In the early 1980s, when Robert Metcalfe discovered his law, he was vague about the notion of value. In those days, it had something to do with sharing expensive resources like fax machines and printers, exchanging electronic mail, and accessing communications technologies, such as the internet. But value is not remotely vague when considering what an automated system does for the chiropractic business and the coaches who apply it to their base of active trainees. For the chiropractic coach, CoachMate shatters any perceived limits on capacity and growth. Its users receive value in four primary ways: improved collections, lower audit risk, efficient practice management, and added revenue sources. And, according to Metcalfe's law, this value continues to grow long after the coach began using such a system, in proportion to each new practice that joins the service of the coach using the system.

If you are looking for cheap medical insurance companies then your best bet is going to be looking for them online. However, the answer to finding the best possible price for your health insurance isn't just blindly looking online, but rather having at your fingertips just the right answers to the questions you will be asked so that you can create the best possible policy that will save you the most money right from the beginning. Then any additional that you save by purchasing your insurance online will be pure gravy.

Let's start with something extremely simple. Pay your premium each month automatically from your bank account. In this way your insurance company won't spend money billing you and they pass that savings on to you. Don't participate in extreme sports or dangerous hobbies. Don't drive a fancy sports car or a fast muscle car. If you intentionally put your health at risk you certainly can't expect an insurance company to reward you with a low rate, can you?

Believe it or not, your credit record also affects how much you pay for your medical insurance. When you apply for this your company will look at your credit score and the better your credit the better your rate will be for your insurance.

Don't smoke or use chew or any other tobacco product. If you are serious about finding the cheapest medical insurance online then you are going to have to be serious about breaking the smoking habit. You may have to lose weight as well. Losing weight can be even harder than quitting smoking for most people, but the fact remains that insurance companies look at your BMI (Body Mass Index) when setting your premium rate and the higher your BMI the higher your rate.

The good news is that often losing even a few pounds can make all the difference in the world and will allow you to slip down a rung on the insurance company's BMI chart - and if that happens you can save money month after month. In other words, every pound counts. If you seldom see your doctor then you really need to increase your co-payment to 50%. This will save you a considerable amount of money every month.

How large of a deductible can you afford? Increasing your deductible will lower your monthly health costs immediately. Just be sure you don't increase your deductible so much that you can't afford to pay it!

Buying your health insurance online is the best way by far to find this in companies in your state. You'll want to check with more than one of the price comparison websites if you are really serious about finding low rates, but as soon as you've check with 3 or more sites your job is done. Just grab the lowest-priced policy you found and feel confident that you have found the cheapest medical insurance in your state.

More than half of all families with medical insurance in this country report that the cost of their monthly premium is a severe financial hardship each month, and fully 16% of all Americans can't afford health insurance in any form. So is it any wonder that almost every person in the country is looking for cheap medical insurance online?

The good news is that almost everyone can save money on their health insurance if they purchase it online. However, in order to find the very best price possible for your insurance it will be necessary for you to fill out the forms on the price comparisons websites in the right way so as to create the perfect low-cost policy to begin with.

Let's start with something simple. Did you know that you can save money on your insurance if you pay your premium automatically each month from your bank account? If your insurance company doesn't have the cost of billing you every month they pass that savings on to you. Keeping your credit clean will also save you money. All insurance companies base your monthly premium, at least in some small part, on your credit score - so be careful with those plastic cards!

If you really and truly want to find this then you can't smoke and you can't use chew. This should come as no surprise - so if you're genuinely serious about getting the best possible price for your medical insurance then you're going to have to give up smoking.

You'll also have to watch your weight. If you are overweight it should also come as no great surprise that you are not going to get the best possible price on your health insurance. Insurance companies look at your Body Mass Index (BMI) when determining your monthly premium cost, so the lower you can get that BMI the lower your cost of insurance is going to be.

Driving a fast sports car and taking part in extreme or dangerous sports or hobbies will also increase the cost of your insurance.

If you can find group health insurance you'll pay considerably less than if you attempt to buy it. Most people buy group health insurance through their place of employment, but if your workplace doesn't offer affordable group health then see if any clubs or organizations or associations that you belong to offer it to their members. You just might be surprised at the number of groups that do.

If you don't see your doctor very often and you're generally in good health then it might very well pay you to increase your co-payment to 50%. Increasing your co-pay will save you money every single month.

Similarly, increasing your deductible will also save you a bundle on the cost of your health premium every month. Just don't go overboard and increase your deductible past the point that you can actually afford to pay for it.

Ultimately if you want really cheap medical insurance you'll have to look online. In order to get the very best deal online you will have to find at least 3 different websites that encourage you to compare the prices of policies between different insurance companies. Because each of these websites only compares the prices from a small number of insurance companies you will need to look at prices from a minimum of 3 sites in order for you to see prices from the majority of companies so that you can feel confident you've found the lowest price possible.

But once you've seen the prices from at least 3 price comparison sites then you'll know for sure where the best price can be found and you can feel confident that you have bought the cheapest insurance available online and that you have saved the most money you possibly could.

The cost of medical insurance is enough to make anyone sick and because of that many people are now in the market for affordable high risk medical insurance online. While almost anyone can save money simply by purchasing their medical insurance online, a little extra effort spent in answering a few of the questions you'll be ask on the online price comparison websites could save you even more.

For example, setting up an automatic payment system for making your premium payments will save you money. If you are truly serious about finding affordable medical insurance then you can't smoke or use chew or any other tobacco products. If you currently smoke you will have to stop - or accept the fact that you will always pay more for your health insurance.

Unfortunately the same goes for being overweight. If you are overweight and you seriously want to save money on your insurance then you're going to have to try to shed at least a few pounds. The good news is that losing even a few pounds might move you down a rung on the insurance company's Body Mass Index - and if you're lucky enough for that to happen you could save quite a bit over the course of a year.

Group health insurance will save you money over individual insurance. If you can't get affordable group health at your place of work try asking at any clubs, associations or organizations that you belong to. You would be surprised at the number of groups and organizations which provide this to their members.

Do not participate in dangerous sports or take part in extreme games or other dangerous activities on a regular basis. Intentionally putting your health in jeopardy will result in your paying more for your health insurance. Driving a fast and flashy sports car or a head-turning muscle car can also increase the amount you pay for yours.

And did you know that your credit rating can affect how much you pay for your health insurance? It's true. Most insurance companies check your credit rating and the better your score the less you'll pay for your insurance.

If you don't see your doctor on a regular basis and are generally healthy you should definitely consider increasing your co-payment to 50%. Increasing your co-pay will reduce your monthly cost of insurance considerably.

Eating right, getting some exercise and just generally improving your health will also save you money on it as well as on your overall health care costs. Cut out all fried food, cut way back on the stops at fast food restaurants, eat more fresh fruits and vegetables and get as much exercise as possible.

Exercise, by the way, can be something as simple as walking around the block a few times a week or biking with your kids to school or biking around town to run errands. If you like company when you exercise why not join a mall-walking club? Increasing your deductible is a sure-fire way to lower your insurance cost as long as you don't go overboard and increase your deductible to the point that you can no longer afford it.

And that brings us to our final way of saving money on your health insurance - buying your policy online. If you truly want to save the most money possible don't stop after looking at the prices for competing policies provided by just one site. Instead, check out competing prices on at least 3 different websites.

Also, try to answer the questions on each of the websites in the same way each time. This will insure that you are comparing the same policy each time - and that is one of the keys to saving money.

But as soon as you've gotten the prices from at least 3 different sites your job is done - just pick the lowest price you've found and you can feel confident that you have found the most affordable high risk medical insurance online.

Over half of all people who have medical insurance report that the cost of their premium is causing a severe hardship on their family's monthly budget. In fact, the cost of health insurance has gotten so high that over 40 million Americans are now without it of any kind.

Once answer is to look for cheap high risk health insurance online. This means different things to different people, but most people can agree that this is vital. One way to save money on it is to exclude certain diseases from your coverage.

Obviously this can become risky (in the event you come down with the disease unexpectedly) but it is one high-risk way to lower the cost of your insurance.

Increasing the percentage of your co-payment to 50% can save you a lot of money if you don't see your doctor very often each year, and you can always be guaranteed of saving money any time you increase your deductible. Just be careful to make sure that you can pay the deductible that you have agreed to each year.

Another way to lower the cost of your monthly insurance payments is to start a Health Savings Account - also known as an HSA. This is a special tax-free savings plan. The catch is that you can ONLY use the money from this tax-free account to pay for medical expenses. But because the money is tax-free you are getting a break on the cost of your medical bills.

In addition to a tax-free savings account you will also be required to buy a low-cost super-high-deductible health insurance policy. These policies have a minimum deductible for an individual of $1,200 and a minimum deductible for a family of $2,400.

With deductibles that high there is little chance that your health insurance will pay for any of your medical bills during a normal year. That's what the tax-free savings account is for. The advantage of the high-deductible insurance is that it acts as a safety-net in the event that you should suffer an unexpected catastrophic accident or illness that ends up costing you tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of dollars - your life savings, your home and your other assets will be protected by the insurance policy.

Another advantage of the HSA is that any money left in your tax-free savings account at the end of the year is rolled over into the next year, allowing you to potentially build up a tax-free nest egg over time. Your employer or any insurance agent or bank or savings and loan or credit union can supply you with additional details.

If you decide to look for cheap high risk medical insurance online be certain that you take the time to fill out the forms on at least 3 different sites rather than relying on the price comparisons from just one site. By looking at the prices on 3 different sites you will be able to compare the prices from many more insurance companies so you stand a much better chance of finding the truly rock-bottom price for your health insurance.

Finding cheap medical insurance companies in Alabama is becoming harder and harder to do. It seems that no medical insurance is cheap any longer. In fact, the cost of medical insurance has gotten so high that more than 16% of all families in Alabama are currently without health insurance of any kind. Fortunately if you find yourself in that position, or close to it, there are a number of things you can do today that can lower the cost of your health insurance as quickly as tomorrow.

If you haven't already set up the automatic payment of your monthly premium directly from your bank account then do so today. This isn't a huge savings, but every little bit adds up.

If you don't see your doctor very often in a normal year then increase your co-payment from 25% to 50%. This can save you several hundreds of dollars over the course of a year.

If you can possibly afford it, increasing your deductible will decrease your monthly premium almost instantly. Just be sure that you have the resources to pay for the additional deductible each year before your insurance takes over.

If you smoke or use chew you simply must quit if you want any chance of finding the cheapest medical insurance you can. If you're serious about saving money then you've got to get serious about quitting smoking.

You've also got to get serious about improving your health in general. Stop eating at fast food restaurants - or at least cut back the number of days you do considerably. Do not super-size meals and do not buy french-fries or other fried items. Changing your eating habits is not as difficult as you might think.

Getting a little exercise will improve your health and help you lose weight. Walk around the block a few times each week. Ride your bike to do errands or ride your bike to school each morning with your kids. Join a group that walks around the mall each morning. Get up, get out and move around!

There's only one place for you to find the cheapest medical insurance companies in Alabama and that's online. It's not hard to find several websites that allow you to make comparisons of health insurance prices from different insurance companies. Just make sure that you check out the prices from a number of different sites rather than relying on just one site.

But after you've taken the time to make comparisons on 3 or more websites you should have sufficient choices to pick the very best rate for health insurance that you are likely to find.

It's hard to even think in terms of cheap medical insurance any longer. Medical insurance here in Alabama has gotten so expensive that more than 16% of all the residents of Alabama can't afford any medical coverage at all. Fortunately there is a radical new way for many people who can no longer afford health insurance to get coverage.

This new idea in cheap medical insurance in Alabama is called a Health Savings Account, or an HSA. An HSA is a self-directed tax-free medical savings account. Tax-free money is deposited into your special savings account which can only be used to pay for your medical needs throughout the year. Any money left in your tax-free account at the end of the year is rolled over into the next year, potentially allowing you to build up a nice tax-free nest egg over time.

Attached to this tax-free savings account is a low-cost super high deductible health insurance policy. These policies have deductibles of more than $1,200 for an individual and more than $2,400 for a family.

Because these policies have such high deductibles their monthly premium is extremely low, low enough for most individuals and families to afford. However, during a normal year these high deductible policies will not pay one penny toward any of your health care costs. Instead, you pay for all of these costs yourself out of your special tax-free savings account. In other words, you have to pay for your own health needs but you get to pay for it with non-taxed dollars, saving you at least 25% .

What is the purpose of the high-deductible insurance policy, then? The policy is a safety net in the (hopefully) unlikely event that you suffer some sort of catastrophic accident or that you become very ill and require long-term hospitalization or round-the-clock care. Such a catastrophic event could easily wipe out your life savings or even force the sale of your home - but with the high-deductible insurance policy your savings and your home will be safe.

You can learn more about these Health Savings Accounts where you work, or at your bank, savings and loan, credit union or at any insurance company.

But whether you are looking into an HSA plan or a more traditional health plan the first place you want to look if you want the very best price possible is online. There are literally dozens of websites that encourage you to compare the prices of health insurance policies at various insurance companies here in Alabama.

Check out the prices on at least 3 different websites if you want to be certain that you'll find the rock-bottom price for health insurance.