Shopping for Insurance

October 18, 2005, Des Moines - A lot of companies are passing rising health care costs on to their employees some are even offering incentives to drop health coverage all together.



If that cost is getting passed onto your family, you might want to look around for a better deal you can find on your own.



Jill Baseman did just that. She decided to go into business for herself a year ago, refurbishing old houses and selling them. Self employed also meant Jill needed to be self insured..



Baseman said, "I called a couple of places and they wanted like $150 a month."



That was too much for Jill's start up budget.



"So I went online typed in cheap insurance and "ehealthinsurance" popped up.... I chose a mid-level plan at like $62 dollars a month. And it was the exact same insurance I had with my employer," said Baseman.



And $20 a month cheaper. Jill's experience is one story in a growing trend. Self employed or fed up with the high cost an employer charges for health coverage, more and more American workers are going out on their own to find a deal. Many of them finding a plan on their own and saving hundreds if not thousands of dollars a year.



But Iowa's Insurance Division says consumers need to know what they're getting into.



First: know all of your choices. Iowa has fourteen different health insurance companies. Second: Understand the deal. Some cheaper monthly plans come with higher out of pocket costs when a major illness or injury comes up. And third: find out how easy it is for the company to drop your coverage.