The cost of health insurance is going up faster than the cost of almost anything else in this country. Over the past few years the cost of health insurance has surpassed the cost of inflation by several percentage points.
It has gotten so bad that right now almost 17% of all Maryland residents are without health insurance coverage of any kind, and with more and more businesses phasing out health insurance or requiring a larger contribution from their employees, the number of uninsured people in Maryland is likely to grow before it shrinks.
If you can get health insurance through your employer you will almost certainly save over trying to buy health insurance individually on your own. But if you are self employed or if your employer does not offer group health insurance then you may need to be a little creative in finding ways to lower the cost of your monthly health insurance premium.
Look at plans that have a higher co-pay for things like doctors visits. The co-pay is the amount that you pay from your own pocket each time you visit a doctor; the more you can pay for each visit (and so the less your insurance company needs to pay) the lower your monthly...