Many of you are aware that health insurance is quite expensive but don’t know the factors that influence the premium rate of your policy. It is advisable that you gather knowledge about the factors that influence the premium rate of health coverage. It will help you to choose a policy with affordable rate as you can alter certain factors in order to reduce the premium cost of your policy.

Factors influencing the cost of health insurance

Here are several factors that the insurance underwriters take into consideration while offering you health insurance coverage.

1.Age and health condition – The insurers will charge less for insuring a person who is young and in good health. Likewise, you may have to pay high premiums if you are a senior citizen and/or suffering from chronic diseases. Overweight people also need to pay high premium as they are more prone to certain diseases.

2.Family medical history – Your family medical history plays an important role in deciding the premium rate of your required health coverage. You may have to pay comparatively high premium if your parents or siblings suffer/have suffered from certain diseases (such as,cancer, diabetes, etc.)

3.Gender of policyholder – Women, especially younger women, may have to pay high premium in comparison to men. This is because women need to contend with gynecological and pregnancy issues, for which insurers charge higher premium.

4.Policyholder’s profession – There is comparatively higher risk of serious injury in certain professions. For example, a sportsperson may have to pay high premium for a health insurance policy as he/she is more prone to serious injury in comparison to a person with white collar job.

5.Certain habits – Smoking is one of an important contributing factor for high premium. Some of the insurance companies don’t even offer health coverage to smokers.

6.Deductible amount – You may have to pay comparatively low premium if you choose a relatively higher deductible amount. While settling a claim, you need to pay the deductible amount before your insurer pays for the claim.

7.Group versus individual health coverage – The group health insurance policies usually cost less in comparison to individual health insurance coverage. For example, you may have to pay less for your policy if you purchase job-based health coverage.

Apart from above, credit score also influences the premium cost of your healthy insurance policy. You’ll have to pay more for the coverage if your score is low. This is because insurance companies consider it risky to offer a policy to a person who has poor money management skills; because, they have higher chance of defaulting on paying the premiums on time. So, insurance companies change more in order to cover the potential risk of offering health insurance coverage to a person with bad credit score.

Useful Resources : -

Health Insurance – Illinois Insurance Quotes

Business Insurance – Get the lowest premiums and best cover by comparing insurance quotes on InsuranceHound.co.za.