One of the factors you must truly understand about health insurance in order to get the best rates possible is how they quote you a rate. Insurance rates are basically determined by the amount of risk you pose to the insurance company and when you are with a group like with your employer, everyone pays the same.

Looking for independent insurance coverage though, is a whole different ball game. They will use everything they can about you and your health and family to determine what risk category to put you in. Of course this means your health history, and most people are aware of this. Realize however that if you have a serious health issue the insurance company may very quickly deny your application for health insurance.

There are however other factors that an insurance company will use to figure out if you are a good risk or a bad risk, and if they deem you a bad risk, even if they offer you insurance, you may just find that you are paying sky high premiums for it.

Factors that will affect your health insurance premiums are:

• HOW OFTEN YOU VISIT A DOCTOR: It is fine if you see a doctor once or twice a year for routine visits, but anything more than that will be frowned upon by a health insurance company. The more visits you make the more benefits you will use therefore you are deemed as more of an insurance risk.
• WHERE YOU LIVE: The area of the country or region of the world that you live in serves as a large determining factor as to your insurance premiums. If you live in a high crime area, your health insurance premiums will definitely be higher.
• GENDER: Believe it or not whether you are male or female can significantly affect the amount you pay in insurance premiums, because of child birth and women’s health issues, if you are a woman you can expect to pay a higher health insurance premium.
• AGE: This one is an obvious factor, because it is assumed that the older you are the more health issues you will have. As we age, health issues begin coming out of the wood work, so it is important to try and establish health insurance while you are younger and in better health.
• CREDIT RATING: Yes, it is hard to believe but a poor credit rating can really drive up your health insurance premiums. Bad credit is seen by a risk factor by insurance companies in all areas of insurability, so if you don’t have good credit, then you are probably paying more for all of your insurance across the board.
• SMOKING: Yes, obviously being a smoker will increase your health insurance premiums. Being seen as a person in a much higher risk category, a smoker will pay a significantly higher premium than a non-smoker.
• MARITAL STATUS – If you are married then you will seen as a lower risk by an insurance company, unless of course your spouse has significant health problems. Married couples tend to have better health than that of single individuals with all other factors being equal.

If you have a better understanding of the factors that are affecting your health insurance premiums than you stand a better chance of getting a better rate. Although all insurance companies do not weigh these factors equally, most of these factors will be looked at by a health insurance company when they are figuring out your premium.