Don’t be fooled into thinking you’ll only get discounts if you do extraordinary things. In fact, all you need to get those discounts are usually little things (and often overlooked things). Let’s look at a number of things that will add up to save you a lot if you implement them…

1. If you drive backwards, be prepared to pay expensive fees. Harsh driving charges and other moving violations can effectively add to your health insurance premium. This is because you will become a greater risk to your insurer.

So driving better not only helps your auto insurance, but it also gets you cheap rates on health insurance. If you drive a sports car or super bike, you are likely to pay a lot more. This is because they will make it easier for you to need medical attention because they have a higher risk of accidents.

2. You’ll get lower rates if you pay using Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT). By doing this, you authorize an insurance company to automatically withdraw your premiums from your account when they are due. This reduces administrative overhead such as those incurred when sending payment advices. That is why this results in discounts.

3. Premiums paid by self-employed individuals may be tax deductible. And you can also enjoy a tax break by opening a flexible spending account. Consult a tax professional.

4. There are medicines that are from big brands. Drugs bearing such brand names cost much more than equally effective drugs with less brand recognition and therefore increase your health insurance rate. But did you know that generic drugs are required by law to have the same active ingredients as brand name drugs? The inactive ingredients are the only differences between generic and brand name drugs.

So by using brand names you are not really getting added value even though you are paying a lot more. However, be sure to ask a doctor you can really trust about this before making your final decision.

5. When shopping for affordable health insurance, it’s very important that you don’t get carried away with the cheapest quote. You have to avoid a very low quote that does not offer you good value for money. You can get really cheap quotes that give you the quality you are looking for if you do your shopping right. But in situations where you can’t find the right value at the lowest rate, you’ll make the right decision by spending more to make sure you’re really getting the quality of coverage that’s right for you.

In a number of situations, very low rates are also great value, but at other times they can be of poor quality. In those situations, the cheapest is not the best, but the best for you will eventually be the best deal.

6. If you really want to save big, you should get and compare quotes. Visit at least five of these for the best results. It’s free, fast and easy. You can get quotes that will have a range that exceeds $2,000. You could easily save that much simply by going for the lowest quote.