Few things are any riskier than not having health insurance. Even a short stay in a hospital could send an uninsured family spinning into bankruptcy.

Yet at the same time the cost of health insurance is so high that fully 16% of all Americans are without any health insurance coverage at all. One answer is to find ways to drive the cost of health care down to the level where people can once again fit it into their budget.

Stop smoking or using chew. It's tough, I know, but the truth is you just don't look very sincere asking for affordable high risk health insurance with a cigarette dangling from your mouth.

Losing weight is even more difficult for most people than quitting smoking, but once again the simple truth is you are not going to get the best rate on health insurance if you are overweight. Do whatever you can to shed at least a few pounds.

Increasing your co-pay to 50% will reduce your monthly health care premium. This is easier to do if you don't see a doctor very often.

Likewise, increasing your deductible will also lower the cost of your health insurance every month.

If you are really serious about finding an affordable high risk health insurance then consider an HSA - a Health Savings Account. This is a tax-free savings account that you can only use to pay for medical needs, such as doctor's visits, hospital stays, medications, lab work, and so forth. Any money put into your HSA savings account that is not used one year may be rolled over and added into your account (tax free) for the following year.

As part of your HSA account you will be required to purchase a low-cost, super high deductible insurance policy. This policy will have a deductible of more than $2,000, which means your insurance will never pay a penny toward doctor's visits or medications during a normal year.

The purpose of a super high deductible insurance policy is to act as a safety net in the event you should suffer a catastrophic event, such as a serious illness or accident which generates medical bills in the tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of dollars in the blink of an eye.

Low-cost, super high deductible insurance policies are designed to save your assets, such as your home, if you should suffer a catastrophic event.

You can sign up for an HSA account at banks, insurance companies, credit unions and even through your employer.

If you are still interested in more traditional health insurance but you need to find a policy for less, the next thing you need to do is to look on the internet. There are literally hundreds of websites that promise to compare the prices of health insurance among different insurance companies and find you the lowest price.

The problem is, each site really only compares the prices of a tiny handful of insurance companies. If you are really serious about wanting to save money you will need to run your price comparisons on at least 3 different price comparison sites. Be sure to use the information you found in this article when answering the questions on the form from each site, and be sure that you answer the questions the same way on each site so that you are comparing the same policy each time.

But once you've done that your job will basically be done. All that's left is for you to review all of the prices you have found and simply choose the lowest price. This is the best way - by far - to find the most affordable health insurance available to you in your state.