Health insurance cost depends on certain factors such as age, health, state where you live, covered benefits as well as how much you would contribute to your health insurance.  Generally, the younger and healthy you are, the lower the monthly premium of the health insurance cost will be and the more likely for your health insurance application to be approved. In addition to this, a higher deductible, minimal benefits and higher co-pays usually contribute to lower insurance cost.  In some policies such as HMOs and PPOs, utilizing medical services of in-network providers also reduce health insurance cost. For someone of your age and health, the monthly premium usually ranges around $100 for a $1,500 deductible.  However, this may vary in consideration to other aspects of your profile as mentioned earlier. Take very important note that health insurance cost is not usually only the assigned monthly premium you have to pay regularly.  For most insurance companies, they may include other epenses such as co-insurances and co-pays to provide etended coverage in their health plans. A Co-pay (co-payment) is a fied amount you pay for every use of services such as doctor office visits and prescription drug purchases while a co-insurance is a portion of the total cost of service that you will pay with the insurance company.  If included, co-pays and co-insurances will definitely add to your health insurance cost. The insurance company usually has the biggest share in a co-insurance term.  The typical term for this is either 80/20 or 70/30.  This means that for a co-insurance condition of 80/20, you pay the 20% amount of the total cost of the service rendered and the rest will be covered by the insurance company. Nevertheless, these health insurance costs are most likely to be limited by certain conditions such as Out-Of-Pocket Maimum rate (OOP).  This rate defines the limit on how much you will cover for payment “out of your pocket” before insurance coverage takes effect.  However, this policy rule may only apply to certain services used. Generally, before any of these policy benefits is permitted by an insurance company, a set deductible must first be met. It will be a great help if you ask the assistance of a local independent insurance agent in sorting out your options for an appropriate health insurance policy. - June 3, 2009 @ 2:43 pm