Home Owners Insurance -- Ways You Can Lower Your Premium Dramatically

Whether you buy group or individual health insurance in California, the options you have regarding the different types of health insurance are generally the same.In some groups you can even choose from available plans...

These different types are traditional health insurance, health maintenance organizations (HMOs), and preferred provider organizations (PPOs).

California goes beyond the Federal requirements for offering health insurance to its residents. Examples of this include Industry Advantage plans (IAHP), short-term health policies, Insurance for high risk Individuals and special plans for children and teens.

Additional Health Insurance in California

The traditional health care delivery system is based on a fee-for-service type of arrangement. In a fee-for-service system, you pay or each itemized medical service you receive. In the days of the frontier, "Doc" often received a chicken as payment. Today, physicians are paid with money, lots and lots of it. Fee-for-service health insurance recognizes this practice and is designed to reduce or even eliminate your duty to pay directly for your medical care. Traditional health insurance comes in three parts:

California has four basic options for choosing a health care plan:

1. Health through an employer or association
2. Health Insurance through Income eligibility such as Medicaid
3. Health care for high risk individuals such as those that have had cancer or a heart attack
4. Private Insurance

Hospitalization

Hospitalization covers defined expenses incurred while in the hospital. Generally, the insurance will pay for all of the covered services rendered by the hospital staff. However, if the insurance benefit is an indemnity payment, the payment will be for a fixed sum regardless of the actual expenses incurred. This fixed sum will usually be far below the daily charge actually made by the hospital.

Medical/surgical

This part of a traditional health plan covers the expensive costs of medical care other than the bill from the hospital. Services such as doctor visits, treatment charges, etc., are covered here. Medical/surgical usually has a deductible and requires co-payments by the insured (payments you make for charges not covered by the insurance), typically 20 percent of the doctor's fee.

Catastrophic or major medical
A lot of folks pay much more than they should be paying for their home owners insurance cover. Your home owners insurance premium is not like the weather -- You can do something about bringing it down without compromising yourself. Here's how...

First, there are things you'll have to do before buying a house. Find out if the area you want to buy a house has a high incidence of break-ins. Also try to live in a neighborhood that is close to a fire station and police station. These two will lower your rates by a big margin

Now, for the rest of us: Those who already have a house...

1) Make sure you have up-to-date home fire systems. These include your fire alarms, extinguishers, smoke detectors, etc. The better your fire system, the lower your rate.

2) Make sure you have a good security system. Like with fire systems, it also lowers your rates. It also helps if you leave close to a police station.

3) Maintain as many of your insurance policies as possible with the same company.

4) Quit smoking if you can. Many long-term smokers have succeeded in quitting smoking. So, you can too. If you really want to, there are support groups to help you.

These all affect your rates positively because they reduce the likelihood that you'll make a claim.

Finally, you'll make the most dramatic savings possible in home owners insurance if you take the time to get and compare as many home owners insurance quotes as possible.