Tuesday, July 15, 2008 

Elderly may fare worse on prostate cancer drugs (AP)

Prostate cancer cells are seen in a handout photo from the National Cancer Institute. REUTERS/NCI/HandoutAP - A prostate cancer study that could change how doctors treat some patients found that widely used hormone-blocking drugs did not improve survival chances for older men whose disease hadn't spread.

The cost of health insurance is going up and it doesn't seem to show any signs of slowing down. But isn't there anything the average person can do to enjoy cheaper rates? Thankfully, there are a good number of time-tested ways to reduce your costs. Let's start saving...

It's now clearly known that smoking will attract higher rates. What people might not understand is that this is also true if you use any other form of tobacco product. For instance, you will get a more expensive rate if you chew or snuff tobacco. Steering clear of all tobacco products will help you get cheaper health insurance.

Paying your premium annually will get you more affordable health insurance rates for Arkansas than opting for monthly payments. True, paying monthly might be less stressful but it's also costly.

If you do transactions with banks you'll agree with me that each check you process is considered deal which attracts charges. Over the course of a year, your monthly checks would be processed separately because they are all separate transactions. This implies that transaction charges would be twelve times more for those who pay monthly.

That is one side of it: Insurers also incur certain administrative costs for your monthly payments. A clear example of such is the expense associated with mailing payment notices.

These costs plus a profit margin for this feature is added to your health insurance premium making it more than a similar profile that pays yearly every year.

Ask your agent personally about all the discounts available to you with your preferred insurance provider. It is possible that your agent did not remember to tell you about some. You'll discover only by telling your agent that you want to be sure you have been told about every discount available. You might be in for a really pleasant surprise!

Lose weight and your health insurance premium will drop. An insured's Body Mass Index (BMI) is a strong factor that affects what you pay as health insurance rate.

A high Body Mass Index will always result in a high rate all other things being equal. You're overweight for your height and sex if your BMI is high. Put more effort into shedding excess weight as losing even a few pounds could put you in another BMI rating which means cheaper premiums.

Raising your deductible will reduce your rate. For people who don't know what a deductible is, it is an amount you will pay before your insurer fulfills branched chain amino acid powder part. Yes, opt for a very high deductible but be certain that it is not higher than you can readily afford.

To wrap up this article, you can reduce your Arkansas health insurance rates by asking for quotes from good insurance quotes sites.

I advise that you visit a minimum of five quotes sites since it will make it less likely that you'll miss out better quotes not presented by the other sites. This gives you a broader basis for doing better comparisons thereby increasing your chances of realizing more savings.

Here are great pages for health insurance quotes...

Health Insurance Quotes

InsureMe Health Insurance Quotes

Publishers can get unique versions of my articles by following any of the links above. Click on "To Use My Articles" when you get to my site.

Chimezirim Odimba writes on insurance.