Never rush into buying health insurance no matter how good a deal it looks. Health insurance is isn’t something you can easily swap and change without exposing yourself to financial risk so make sure you understand what you are buying before you make any kind of commitment.

It’s amazing the number of people who buy health insurance without understanding what they are buying. So many people are finding that health insurance that they originally thought would provide them with complete peace of mind actually fails to provide them with an adequate level of health insurance cover or costs them substantially more than they budgeted for in the second and subsequent years.

• Make sure you are fully aware of the different health insurance options available and what each type of health insurance policy should generally cover.

• Make sure you know what the health insurance policy you are looking to purchase covers.

• Get several comparable quotes with the same benefits and the same level of deductibles and make yourself fully aware of the impact higher or lower deductibles will have on your health insurance premiums.

• Try and avoid buying health insurance that excludes pre-existing conditions and make sure you know how long the waiting period is, if any, before your health insurance cover kicks in.

• Do not buy health insurance that has a significant waiting period (a year is just too long and a waiting period often adopted by health insurance companies that then hike up your premiums in year two).

• Get some background information on the health insurance providers you are considering. Make sure that you are not likely to be faced with a significant increase in health insurance premiums year after year.

• Find out how the health insurance provider will cover the cost of your health care. Will you have to settle the bill and seek reimbursement or will they settle the bills direct? How long will you have to wait for any reimbursement?

• The luxury of monthly premiums for your health insurance can cost. Make sure you know how much extra you will be paying if you choose monthly over annual health insurance premiums.

• Investigate the possibility of enrolling in a group health insurance plan and understand what kind of savings a group policy can offer. Many professional associations offer members savings on self employed health insurance or other group health insurance plans.

Health insurance is an expensive and long term purchase, most people will look to save a few dollars here and there on every day purchases and yet so many consumers fail to spend any time on understanding what their premiums are buying them when it comes to health insurance.