If you are aged between fifty and sixty-five it can be hard to find good and cheap health insurance.
This is because insurance companies consider customers in this age range as a potential gamble because at this age health problems are frequent.
Insurance companies work on statistics and they have calculated that they will be confronted with more expenses when dealing with the 50 to 65 age group rather than those between 20 and 45, thus resulting in higher insurance premiums.
However, there are ways to get cheaper premiums and here are a few tips:
In the event you are planning to retire and open a business of your own you can find out if the company you are working for at the moment, will let you purchase health insurance through their health insurance plan.
If you can do this then if you are going for early retirement then your employer might finance a percentage of your premiums.
Otherwise, you may get a group rate that will be much cheaper than any rate you can get as an individual.
You may also consider adding your wife to your plan if she or he is still working as this will also get you a better rate.
You can also consider using Cobra or the consolidated omnibus budget reconciliation act, which allows you to continue benefitting from your coverage for one and a half years after retirement.
Your former employer’s insurance company cannot deny you this option whether or not you suffer from a health condition.
The only hitch is the cost, as with your usual health insurance premium your employer only covers seventy percent of the expenses, while with cobra you have to pay for one hundred percent of the costs including administrative expenses.
In cases when you do not have a job that provides health insurance you may have several other choices.
Should you have problems such as diabetes or a heart condition you can benefit from health insurance using a state high-risk health plan, which is conceived to aid people with health problems, although here again premiums can be high.
There are other professional organizations that offer health insurance plans for their members and you could join one of these.
These offer group plans and the premiums can be quite less than you can get as a single person.
For individual health insurance policies, you can try shopping around with different types of insurance companies, that are now offering better plans, as they realize that the age group 55 to 65 is growing in potential.
Nowadays many people within this age group are fitter and healthier than they used to be and often have better salaries than younger people.
Insurance companies also try and sell supplementary insurance to these people and premiums can be in the range of 200 per month if you are healthy and can pay a high deductible.
You can also combine a high deductible individual health insurance policy with a health savings account.
