Finding cheap medical insurance has become a national mania. It seems that everyone needs to cut the cost of their medical insurance. Fortunately there are several things that almost everyone can do to lower the cost of their traditional medical insurance - and then there is a fairly new, cheap, high risk medical insurance plan that you may want to consider.

First, a few things you can do to lower the cost of your traditional medical insurance.

Don't buy individual medical insurance if you can avoid it. Group medical insurance is much less expensive. If your place of employment doesn't offer group health insurance ask around at any clubs or fraternities or groups or associations that you belong to. Many organizations that have absolutely nothing to do with insurance offer their members a low-cost group health plan. If you don't belong to any clubs that offer their members group health, see if any of your friends or family do. If so - join!

Don't smoke. Don't use chew. How many times have you been told how bad for your health tobacco products are? Now here's where smoking or using chew is going to cost you extra - a lot extra. If you're serious about saving money on your health insurance then you'll have to get serious about quitting tobacco products.

Weight is another factor in how much you are going to pay for your health insurance. Your Body Mass Index (BMI) will help determine how much you pay every month for your insurance. Losing weight is really tough, but if you can drop even a few pounds there is the possibility that you will drop down one rung on the insurance company's BMI scale and if that happens it's just possible that you could save hundreds of dollars each and every year on your health insurance.

Don't participate regularly in extreme or dangerous sports. Also, if you drive a sports car or any other high-performance vehicle you may very well end up paying more for your health insurance.

Upping your co-payment to 50% will also save you money. This is an especially good idea for people who do not see their doctor on a regular basis.

Increasing your deductible will save you money almost instantly. If you can afford a larger deductible you'll save money month after month.

For people who still can't afford health insurance there is one other alternative - sign up for an HSA account. HSA stands for Health Savings Account. This is a tax-free savings account that can only be used to pay for medical related expenses. As part of your HSA you will be required to purchase a low-cost super-high-deductible health insurance policy. This policy will have a deductible of at least $1,100 if you are an individual or $2,200 if you are insuring a family.

Obviously these insurance policies will not pay anything toward your medical bills in a normal year - that's what your tax-free savings account is for. Where these policies shine is if you are suddenly faced with a catastrophic event which results in tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical bills. Your high-deductible policy will then protect your home and other assets and pay your bills.

You can lean more about HSA accounts from your bank or credit union, any health insurance company and even from your employer.

If you are interested in sticking with more traditional health insurance, but you need to save money on it, then use the information you have learned from this article to help you fill out the forms on at least 3 different websites that permit you to compare the prices of health insurance from different companies head-to-head.

Remember to take the extra time and make your comparisons on 3 sites and also make sure that you answer the questions on all 3 sites the same way. This way you will be comparing the same health policy on every site.

As soon as you have all the results simply compare the prices and choose the lowest price you find. That's all there is to it. You are now an expert at finding cheap high risk medical insurance in your state.