There are affordable health plans in Arizona, you just need to know what they are how to find them, and know what to do to keep the cost down. Here are a 5 ways to save money on your health insurance:

1. Use an independent health insurance broker. An independent health insurance broker is someone who is dedicated to the customer, not employed by a specific company, but represents a variety of insurance carriers. The advantage of using a broker is that they can shop the best deals around without sacrificing benefits. Health brokers are a lot like a mortgage brokers who shop the banks for the best interest rates, saving you money.

2. Review your usage of your current Arizona health insurance plan. In other words, see what benefits you are using and how often. For example, doctor’s office visits. How often are you going to the doctor each year? Most people only go to the doctor once or twice. A lot of times the plan they have include “unlimited” office visits with a co-pay. If you choose a plan that allows you to go with a “set” number of co-pay visits per year (like 4 or 5) you can save about 20% or more per month, saving you hundreds per year.

3. Increase your deductible. By increasing your deductible you are not changing the initial benefits of your Arizona health plan. You still get your doctor’s office co-pays, your prescription card, and ER co-pays. The only time you use the deductible is for large claim situations like, going to the hospital for surgery, having an outpatient procedure, or costly tests.

4. Don’t Smoke, if you do QUIT!!! By being a non-smoker you are saving money already. For those of you that are smokers, you are adding to your premium a least another $30 dollars or more a month.

5. Remove the bells and whistles. This kind of goes back to the second tip, but goes a little further. If you hardly ever go to the doctor why even pay for that benefit each and every month. Just pay for the visit out-of-pocket when it happens. If you are using a doctor within your PPO network you will experience a reprised amount anyway. For example, generally an Arizona primary care doctor visit is about $80, when it gets reprised because of the PPO you will only pay about $55, generally speaking. These types of plans are usually called Catastrophic Plans. Another type of plan that is gaining in popularity is called the HSA Plan. These types of plans are saving people a lot of money each and every month and providing another way to save on their income taxes each year.