Most people might chuckle if they saw these words in the same sentence, one right after the other: affordable health insurance. Not so long ago, monthly mortgage payments used to exceed health insurance premium payments. No longer. Some people who have conditions such as asthma or diabetes (or even a family history of a particular disease) have to pay more each month for their health insurance than their car and house payments combined.

Shopping for affordable health insurance can certainly be an eye-opener. You might be thinking that you can't afford the same full coverage that you once received from your employer (past or present.)

Affordable health insurance (not "cheap"), however, is definitely available... if you know how and where to look.

You're searching for affordable health insurance so, it's understood that you want the lowest cost per month to fit your budget. Although, what is even more important than price is the company's record for paying. Do they make it easy or hard to get your money. After all what good is insurance if they won't pay you when you need it. Just as there is a car for just about any budget, there is also affordable health insurance. Maybe you won't be able to afford a "Mercedes" insurance policy but there is no reason that you can't find a solid "Toyota" policy.

There are many reasons why, but the internet has made easy to shop for affordable health insurance.

1. In the past, you needed a local agent to submit your claims to the insurance company but now you don't. Because of the information age, you save 8-12% because your insurance company no longer has to pay agents commissions for filing your claims. Why? Your medical provider, such as your doctor or hospital, usually submits your claims directly to the insurance company so that they get paid faster.

2. With a simple internet search for "insurance companies", you'll easily find all of the top insurance companies. Since local agents can only represent a few insurance companies, generally they point you to the best health insurance product for your health and financial needs (unless their product is actually the best.)

3. Another benefit that stems from the internet is that insurance companies make every effor to be competitive. Why? Because they know that it's really easy for customers to find out what other companies are charging for the same service. To do a similar compariston, in the past you would have had to drive all over town to have ten meetings (or at least meet with ten different agents at your home) to get the best deal. I don't know about you but I never had that kind of time available.

4. In just a couple of milliseconds, you can do what used to take up a couple of weeks. Now, you don't have to call your local agent, drive over to their office to get the claims paperwork, mail the paperwork back to them, wait for your agent to submit the paperwork to your insurance company only to have to wait a couple of weeks for the insurance company to process everything, mail your check and then wait for the snail mail to get to you.

5. Instead of having to remember let alone mail a damn check every month to the insurance company, you can just have your payments charged to your credit card. Furthermore, this feature will usually earn you a discount with your insurance company in addition to giving you another 30 days before you actually have to pay if you need it.

Realizing that health insurance's main function is to protect you from a heavy financial loss rather than protecting you from spending money on splinter removal is the single most important secret to finding affordable health insurance. These little expenses will not hurt you significantly in the pocketbook even if they are a bit of a pain in the ass. It's the $100,000 heart operation that will break you. Protectiing your family, your assets and you is, more than anything else, the purpose of health insurance.

Keep in mind that for you, as in gambling, insurance is a hedge bet. You are betting that over time you will pay less than you actually need. It's not a bad way to look at it. But it's not really the way it works.

A lot of consumers think that insurance companies and casinos work the same way so we'll inspect it that way. They say that like placing a bet on their favorite sports team at the casino's sportsbook that they are betting against the casino. This is not true. In fact, they are actually betting against all of the people that placed bets for the other team. The casino simply sets the lines to balance the action on both sides and collect a small fee called "the vig".

Like placing a bet at the sportsbook for your favorite team, the casino is not betting against you. Actually, insurance companies determine the average cost per person by averaging the cost of a large yet similar group. How it works is that over time, the insurance company knows that the average payment will cover the same group with some being paid more and others less. Finally, the insurance company tacks on their fee for taking care of all of the money just as the casino takes their vig for managing the bets between bettors. When it's all said and done, you are essentially betting against the other people in your group policy that you are going to need more money in the future than they will need. This is what the insurance industry calls the "law of large numbers" and is what really makes affordable health insurance possible.

Most importantly, "affordable" and "cheap" are not synonyms. They do not mean the same thing. A Toyota Camry is "affordable". A Yugo is "cheap". And while there is some truth to "You get what you pay for," when you purchase a $60,000 Lexus instead of a $30,000 Toyota, you are not getting $30,000 more in actual car. In fact, you are probably only getting about $10,000 more car. There are many similarities with health insurance.

The opposite is also true though. One can get from point A to point B by driving a Yugo but not reliably. Should you rely on a crappy car to get you to work if it breaks down all the time? What if you miss a day of work and don't get paid because you can't get to work? Would you want to drive a crappy Yugo to a sales meeting? I don't know about you but I will never buy anything from somebody driving a Yugo (unless I'm travelling in Eastern Europe.) I'm not a snob but I don't want to lose money by being cheap!

With that in mind, you should check the ratings companies such as AM Best (ambest.com) and Standard & Poors (standardandpoors.com) and, in my opinion, select a company with a rating of A or higher. More often that not, the least expensive policy from a highly rated company is much better than the most expensive policy from a lower rated company. Sure, you will probably have to pay a little more to go with the better company but it is almost certainly the better deal and the best choice. Because if the company won't pay you (and in a timely fashion) when you need the money then what good is it? None!

Conclusion: finding affordable health insurance is much, much easier today than it was just ten years ago and is not difficult at all.

Taking more of the risk with higher deductibles, spending a little time on the internet comparing eight to ten different companies, and deleting coverage that you will not likely need (such as maternity for many folks) will make it very possible to find your own affordable health insurance.