For California health insurance consumers who are looking at the cost advantages of a PPO health plan with a higher annual deductible you may be grumbling to yourself: What good will this California medical insurance be when the deductible seems so high?

The answer is plenty! When you purchase a California health insurance plan from a leading California health insurance company like California Blue Cross company Anthem, Blue Shield of California, or Aetna you become a ‘member’. As in any situation where you can call yourself a member you’ll have the benefits of membership. What kind of membership benefits? How about negotiated rates on your health care services for a start! These negotiated rates provide the plan owner with a significant discount in the amount of money you’ll lay out for your health care services moving forward.

Larger insurance companies like Anthem Blue Cross, Blue Shield and Aetna feature powerful networks of health care providers. Using in-network providers will assure you of the lowest costs you can secure in the market for your health care needs. Of course, going out-of-network for these same health care services will result in a typically much higher cost burden for the plan holder so it always behooves you and your family to seek out the services of an in-network provider!

These same insurance companies are also being very proactive in the provision of online tools to help members start or maintain healthy lifestyle initiatives. These are great tools to use anytime but especially now when high(er) annual deductibles are becoming more prevalent amongst the California health insurance strategy options you have to choose from. Maintaining a healthy lifestyle with proper nutrition and regular exercise can first help you get the best premium rate on your California health insurance plan quotes and then – once you have your plan in hand – it – along with the use of your plan’s preventive care services – can be useful towards avoiding more costly medical issues later in life. Health Reform legislation and the Affordable Care Act acknowledged the importance of preventive services in helping to avoid the potential for more costly health care services down the road: So use your member benefits as they relate to preventive services. Your long term health and future household finances will be glad you did!

Have you applied and been accepted for California health insurance with Anthem Blue Cross or Blue Shield of California? Here’s another member benefit coming your way: You can also secure a new California life insurance plan without the need to pass through a separate underwriting process for your new California term life insurance plan with Anthem Blue Cross or Blue Shield! That’s both convenient and a great opportunity to quickly and easily purchase coverage to protect your family’s tomorrows in your absence.

It’s understood that when you’re looking at various strategies for health coverage, you might look at a health plan – with a high annual deductible – and your thoughts immediately go to that place where you’re thinking about meeting the obligation of a $3,500 or $5,000 annual deductible. It can seem daunting and discouraging. But let’s focus on the positive attributes your potential new health plan offers:

• Your actual use of your health insurance plan over the course of a plan year may be quite low, so even a plan with a (much) lower deductible may not have been very helpful in your situation – and remember that lower annual deductible health plan? You paid significantly more for that plan’s premiums. Also: If you do use health care services during the year, you’re reaping the benefits of the plan’s lower negotiated rates with providers so your actual health care expenditures may be lower than the higher premiums you would have paid with the more costly plan option.
• As a plan member, you’ll have great healthy lifestyle tools in the form of ready access to preventive care services without charging you a copay, coinsurance or deductible – provided that these services are delivered by a network provider – in all new California health insurance plans purchased on or after September 23, 2010.
• Your new California health insurance plan will give you something that we consider absolutely vital in today’s era of high medical costs and the very real potential for medical bankruptcy: The health coverage you and your family needs in the event of serious illness or injury. While that $5,000 or $7,000 annual out-of-pocket maximum once seemed high, it pales in comparison to the cost burden to your family’s finances that is negotiating our nation’s health care system without health coverage.

If you’re looking at a California health insurance plan strategy that features a high annual deductible, you owe it to yourself to check out the advantages and benefits of a HSA-compatible health plan. These HSA plans feature exciting cost savings potential; important tax advantages; and the empowerment that comes with being able to spend your Health Savings Account funds the way you want!

Here’s something that features no annual deductible or out-of-pocket expense to you because it has no cost: Vitality California health insurance services! Our client services, including quotes and personalized one-on-one client consultations are always 100% free to you. Always! For more information about California health insurance strategies that are uniquely right for you, your family – even your California small business – reach out to us here at our Vitality website or call us toll-free at 800-607-1950!