Family Health Insurance Plans

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If you're one of the dwindling few who receive health insurance through an employer, you may already be familiar with the decision to purchase a family or an individual insurance plan. In most of those cases, your premiums are very low if only you are going to be covered. However, the moment you add a spouse and/or children to the equation, your premiums are going to increase dramatically.
Unfortunately, the same is true if you have to purchase your own medical insurance. If you want coverage for your entire family then expect to pay more.

Although price will definitely be a factor, you don't want cost alone to be the basis of your decision. There are a myriad of other factors you want to take into consideration when buying a family health insurance plan.

Low Cost/Low Coverage

With many of the lower cost family health plans, you end up saving money at the expense of comprehensive coverage. These plans can be wonderful in the event of an accident or serious illness but if you want to ensure the continued good health of your family you want to find plans that don't skimp on prevention.
Another area to pay attention to is prescription coverage. Medications can be very expensive, and some plans will try to minimize their costs by either not including prescription benefits or by charging outrageously high co-payments. For some of the highest priced drugs, insurance plans may even require you to pay a portion of the full price of the drug which can be several hundred dollars. Look for plans that charge reasonable co-pays. The average is $5 to $35 per refill.

If your family intends on growing in the next few years, you should definitely plan attention to another factor in your plan: maternity benefits. A growing trend in recent years is for insurance companies to save money by charging an additional fee for maternity benefits. The costs of having a baby rise every year so having insurance to pay part of those expenses is something you definitely want to look for before choosing your family health insurance.

Family Health Insurance: Realistic Expectations

The most important thing you can do when buying medical insurance for your family is shop around. Don't go to one agent, get a quote, and sign on the dotted line. Working with an insurance broker is one way to make the process easier. Brokers actually work with multiple insurance companies so they can offer you a larger number of quotes and won't use high pressure sales tactics to convince you to work with one company over the other. Having multiple quotes to review simultaneously makes comparison shopping much easier.

However, you do need to start your search with realistic expectations. Back in 2002, the average monthly cost of premiums was just under $400, according to the Kaiser Institute. Since then, premiums have increased 87% - they have almost doubled in just five years! If you're expecting to get quality, comprehensive coverage for your entire family with a reasonable deductible for less than $500 a month, you may have a difficult time, even with a broker.

If the costs are too high, you may be better off purchasing san alternative form  for your family until you can find an employer who offers coverage to workers. Depending on your income, you can also try to enroll your children in the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) which subsidizes health care for children - financial requirements vary from state to state. Once your children on this type of program, you can purchase a more affordable individual insurance plan for yourself.

The Bottom Line

Family health insurance covers you, your spouse, and your children's health care needs. However, that coverage doesn't come cheap. Shop around to find the best balance between coverage - without skimping on prescriptions or preventative care - and costs. Working with an insurance broker might be a good idea if you want to do some comparison shopping before making a purchasing decision.