The Average Cost of Health Insurance for an Individual
Health costs continue to soar and that means that so does the cost of health insurance. Insurance companies base health insurance rates on actuarial tables. These are simply statistics that tell the insurance company the average number of claims and costs of claims for individuals who fall into specific groups. Because of this, there are differences in rates. If you're looking for an average cost of health insurance, you have to consider all the factors to find the average that fits your group.
Other People Are Reading
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Sex
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Men tend to die younger but file fewer health-insurance claims than women. Perhaps, that's why they die younger, or perhaps that's why they file fewer claims. Because of this, men have lower health insurance rates than women do. There are other factors concerning hormonal influences and child birth that increase visits to doctors by women.
Age
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People in their 20s generally don't have as many doctor visits as those in their 60s. The body shows signs of wear as a person ages, including the effects of an unhealthy lifestyle or of diseases that they are prone to genetically. Of course, this is an average so you may know a 20-year-old who lives in the doctor's office or an extremely healthy 60-year-old. Since rates are based on averages, the younger the person, the lower the insurance costs.
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Locale
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Insured people in small Midwestern towns aren't necessarily healthier than clients in New York City, but when they go to a doctor or hospital, they don't pay as much. Areas where the cost of living is lower have lower costs for medical care. Because of this, insurance companies factor that lower expense into premiums for these areas.
Smoking
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Smokers pay more. Statistically, they tend to have more illnesses than a non-smoker does, so their average rates are higher. Most of the time, the rate of insurance for their age, sex or location classification is multiplied by a factor such as 1.1, which means the smoker pays 10 percent more than the non-smoker does for the same coverage.
Health
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Most insurance companies don't cover pre-existing conditions, but if you have had a disease in the past and want insurance, they may cover you and the condition after a certain length of time. Insurance companies normally will charge you an additional amount for coverage for a pre-existing condition.
Height to Weight
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People who carry excess weight develop diseases not often found in those of average weight. The BMI, body mass index, of the person is important to health insurance companies. Hips, knees and feet of overweight people suffer after years of carrying the additional weight. Diabetes and coronary disease afflict overweight people to a greater extent. People who are too thin also might be that way for medical reasons. If your weight is outside the BMI box, you may pay more for insurance. If you're so muscular that you pay more not because of fat but because of muscle weight you should ask your agent to take a picture of you so that underwriters can note it's muscle. You'll probably get the insurer to drop the extra cost.
Vocations and Avocations
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Some jobs are simply more dangerous than others. An office worker might suffer from a severe paper cut, whereas a logger's accident might keep him in the hospital for months. People who take up dangerous sports also cost insurance companies additional money in claims. Chess players are not likely to have the same injuries that a race car driver might experience.
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