How to Buy Health Insurance

Purchasing health insurance can be a confusing and frustrating experience. This site provides explanations of health care terms and industry jargon so you'll have a clearer understanding of how it all works.

The guidelines, examples and information contained here are provided as a general overview. We hope that these materials give you the knowledge you'll need to ask informed questions when you consider buying a specific plan and ultimately helps you make the best choice when buying health insurance for yourself and/or your employees.

Why is Health Insurance Important?

Small Businesses

If you’re a small business owner, health insurance is an important part of an employment package. Offering health insurance to a potential employee can make the difference for that employee when she or he considers whether to accept a position. Your employees will have the peace-of-mind that comes with knowing they and their families are protected in the event of an accident or illness. Some additional reasons for offering health insurance are:

• Employees with insurance tend to seek healthcare before injuries or illnesses become major problems, so they have fewer sick days and are more productive.
• Offering health insurance to employees helps attract and retain productive employees.
• It can also help you keep employees longer and reduce the high cost of recruiting and training new employees.
• When the employer and employee share the cost of health care coverage, it becomes more affordable for everyone.

Individuals and Sole Proprietors

If you’re an individual or sole proprietor, having health insurance can help you maintain and improve your health. It pays for the medical care you need when you get sick and for regular check-ups that can help prevent or treat illnesses. Recent insurance reforms have made purchasing an individual plan easier for you.

Today, health care costs are high and getting higher. It's important to consider how you will pay your medical bills in the case of a serious accident or a major illness. You buy health insurance for the same reason you buy other kinds of insurance-- to protect yourself financially.

With health insurance, you protect yourself in case you need medical care that might be very expensive. You can't predict what your medical bills will be. In a good year, your costs may be low. But if you become ill, your bills could be very high. If you have insurance, many of your costs are covered through your health insurance company, not by you.