California health insurance consumers should have a healthy lifestyle game plan and make use of preventive care services. Are you shopping for California medical insurance and an affordable California health insurance plan in particular? Pursuing a healthy lifestyle path can be a real difference-maker physically, mentally, and financially.
If you’re a regular reader of the Vitality Blog you know we’re huge proponents of encouraging clients to have a healthy living lifestyle game plan. What’s that? Well it’s a lifestyle that includes good nutrition, regular exercise and no smoking. Maintaining a lifestyle like that can also make you quite popular with the insurance company’s underwriter! If you apply for a health plan and have a medical history that includes an incident of illness or injury and/or currently take a prescription drug; the insurance company underwriter is going to make assessments about the risk you represent to that underwriter’s company. One way to impress the underwriter is to fall within the height/weight guidelines each insurance company has for applicants. Making a good impression on an underwriter can ultimately be the difference-maker in saving you money in the form of a lower premium rate or avoiding being declined coverage by an insurance company.
One component of 2010 Health Reform legislation was the mandate calling for the inclusion of recommended preventive 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. This effort – contained within the Affordable Care Act – to help make wellness and preventive services a more affordable and accessible part of a healthy lifestyle strategy is an acknowledgment that prevention is a vital tool in helping to maintain health and wellbeing for the long run and that preventive services today can help prevent more expensive health care expenditures down the line for the California health insurance consumer!
Living and working here in Ventura, the team at Vitality has year round access to great exercise pursuits at local beaches, foothills, and an array of other recreational pursuits! One of our favorites – if we can get past the occasional chilly morning (Ouch!) – is the opportunity to swim year round at the Ventura Aquatic Center! We see for ourselves the benefits of regular exercise enjoyed by so many of our friends and neighbors in terms of better health and reduced stress. These very same pursuits can be important tools in both your fitness and your financial planning arsenal: Everyone wants the most affordable California health insurance strategy for themselves and their family. You can help make that happen with the healthy lifestyle strategies you and your family implement as part of your daily routine. And please: Once you’ve secured that affordable California health insurance? Be diligent about using the preventive services included in your plan. Preventive health care is an integral part of your healthy lifestyle strategy moving forward!
The selection process for your California health insurance plan and California life insurance plan can be very similar in some respects. The team at Vitality offers experience and expertise in both and is here to help you create winning buying strategies for both of these important insurance products. Let’s review some of what makes these two insurance products similar for the California insurance shopper:
- Well – to state the obvious – the process of securing the most affordable California health insurance plan and a California life insurance plan will involve a review of your past and current health status. The savvy California insurance consumer can do themselves a real favor here by practicing healthy living strategies that include proper nutrition and exercise and not smoking! Quitting smoking or better yet –never starting! – is one great proactive way to help yourself secure lower insurance premiums. We always put this item first even though your health check comes after you apply. Why? Because heading into the underwriting process you should know your own personal dedication to a healthy living lifestyle will likely always serve you well when it comes to buying insurance of one form or another.
- Okay; you’re applying for one or both types of insurance: A California health insurance plan and/or a California life insurance plan. Here again, the two share some similarities as the consumer can quickly and easily consult with a member of the Vitality team – always for free – and get a sense of which plan strategy is uniquely right for that consumer and their family. A quick check of our website’s quote engine, where you can get a quick, easy, and convenient California health plan quote will tell you that the range of health plan options is pretty broad. The same holds true for your life insurance plan options. Our role in this process is to help narrow the range of options down to a manageable list of choices that focus in on what is best for your unique situation.
- The balancing act of performance and affordability. What makes an HSA-compatible high deductible health plan the right choice for one consumer and another type of PPO health plan better for another? What makes the choice of an affordable California term life insurance plan or permanent/whole life insurance plan the best strategy for a consumer? Here again, this is our strength: Your Vitality California health and life insurance professional will help you create a strategy that provides the coverage you’re looking for within the financial parameters of your budget. Placing you in either a health plan or life insurance policy that looks great on paper today but isn’t financially viable when the premiums come due is a situation we’re determined to help you avoid. Our careful, considerate client consultation is dedicated to helping the client select the best plan from both a cost and performance standpoint.
There’s one other important similarity shopping for either plan with Vitality will share: Our client services and support are always free. Always. The work we do on behalf the client as an independent authorized agency represents one of the best ‘value-adds’ a California insurance consumer will experience in the shopping process for a health or life insurance plan in our state. We’re here to eliminate concerns and in their place ensure peace of mind that the strategies you create will work best for you and your family moving forward into the future!
The Vitality Team knew a young man who was fond of saying that his idea of an exercise regimen was the annual physical he received for free courtesy of his employer. He was, of course, fortunate to have health coverage through his employer’s California small group health insurance policy.
On the other hand, if you are looking for an affordable California health insurance plan for yourself and/or your family it behooves you to do what we call ‘thinking like an underwriter’. When you are shopping for a California health plan, here’s what you and Vitality will be looking for: An affordable California health insurance plan that provides the highest level of benefits at the lowest monthly premium! Affordability is determined in part by your health history to date and also your approach to a healthy living lifestyle. Underwriting is going to look at factors such as proportional height and weight to help them understand your physical wellbeing at the time you apply for coverage. They are going to ask whether you smoke.
In short, the underwriting process is about understanding the risk you represent to that health insurance company in terms of future health care costs. Pose a higher risk, expect to pay higher premiums. Pursue a healthy living lifestyle with proper nutrition and regular exercise strategies and the prospect of a California health plan with a lower monthly premium becomes that much brighter.
Fortunately you have help in your pursuit of healthy living and it can be as close as your nearest hospital. For instance, a quick check with our local hospital – Community Memorial Hospital here in Ventura – turned up a range of classes and support groups on health. On a broader scale, you can even look to the United States government for a Guide to Healthy Living!
Here at Vitality, we’re dedicated to helping you pursue a path to healthy living: First and foremost, your health means the world to us and your family. Secondly, your pursuit of a healthy living lifestyle may have a significant impact on your ability to secure the most affordable California health insurance plan with the benefits that appeal most to you – and that makes for happy clients!
A quick last comment – Health Reform legislation means that all new individual market health plans must provide coverage for preventive services. Make use of these preventive services. Make preventive care an essential part of your strategy for healthy living! You’ll also be pleasantly surprised to find that in many California communities free healthcare screenings abound. Be on the lookout for them and we’ll help too! Check back with us on a regular basis for more healthy living articles here at the Vitality Blog!
We’ll see you out on that bike, hiking, or walking path, California health insurance consumers!
