Are you currently looking for an affordable individual health insurance plan? Well, good luck. I don't mean to be a pessimist but the cost of health insurance, even for an individual, has gone out of sight over the past few years. I was speaking to a family member recently and they told me that they were paying over $300.00 per month just for an individual health plan.

There are some things that you may be able to do in order to bring those premium payments down, however, you'll need to decide in the end if these would be in your best interest or not.

The first thing that you could do is to cut down on your coverage. This means getting the least expensive policy available and raising your deductible higher. This will mean that you'll likely be paying for all of your doctor visits out of your own pocket, but you should be covered for any unexpected accidents or any long term hospitalization costs, minus your deductible. This might be a feasible option if you think about it. Example, if your current deductible is $250.00 and your premium payments are costing you $300.00 per month then you can probably reduce your monthly costs by half or more by raising your deductible up to $2,500 or even $5,000. I know, I know. Nobody wants to pay that much out of pocket, however, let's look at another example.

The average person only visits the doctor twice a year, once for a check-up and once for illness. If you figure the cost of those two visits combined to be in the range of $3-400.00, depending on what has to be taken care of, then you could potentially save a lot by raising your deductible. Look at the numbers. If you were able to cut your premium in half by raising your deductible then you're saving $150.00 per month or $1,800 per year. If you only payed $400.00 out of pocket then you've saved yourself $1,400 over the course of twelve months and you'll still be covered for emergency care. The key to making this work is to put money in savings until you've saved a few hundred dollars and then leave it there specifically for doctor visits alone. This is only one option for you to consider when you get ready to purchase an individual health insurance plan.