3. Take stock of your finances and choose a plan that suits your liquidity. You may be fortunate to write monthly or quarterly checks to cover every medical condition that is even remotely possible. However you can cut corners with reasonable safety if you opt to exclude certain conditions. Such risk taking should go hand-in-hand with a concerted attempt to improve your state of health. You could for example decide to forego cover for some expensive surgery and hospitalization just by scientific dieting, changing risky habits such as smoking and making it a point to work out thrice a week. A different but effective route to economy is to opt for larger co-payments in return for a smaller premium. This means you pay less as a matter of course, but share more of the bill for each visit to the doctor or pharmacy.

4. Now find an authorized agent of a Health Insurance company that is a member of AHIP or America’s Health Insurance Plans. The agent should reside within easy reach and come with reliable references of having helped some of your trusted friends in their times of need. This does not matter if you have legal training or an accomplished attorney who will serve you for free, but the fine print of a plan can be tough for lay people to decipher! Portability may prove bothersome when you change your job, and the process of appeal against rejected claims can be rather frustrating. Most people need a helping hand to guide them through deliberate exclusion of certain indemnity. This is integral to getting affordable Health Insurance, without taking undue risk with respect to likely and expensive medical conditions.

5. The fifth and last step follows from the first four. Do not wait until the end of the enrollment period to choose your plan. The truism "haste makes waste" certainly applies to Health Insurance, and providing optimal protection needs that you have plenty of time on hand. It is easy to get a quote for just any plan, but comparison of alternatives needs focused attention and repeated reviews. Injudicious exclusions can result in hopeful savings becoming intolerable burdens of cost. It is hard to overdo the imperative of careful and repeated consideration of each medical condition, form of treatment, procedure and medication that a plan does not cover in large part if not fully.