If you are a parent that cannot afford health insurance for your whole family, then you do have a few other options. Unfortunately, there are not that many. You might qualify for Medicaid if your income level is low enough. Medicaid is a low cost form of government subsidized health insurance, but it does have its limitations. Most feel that the many benefits outweigh the negative aspects. You don’t have to make any sort of upfront investment to obtain Medicaid. You only need to complete the application procedure and be approved. You will have to check with your state government to determine what the Medicaid policies are in your state. If you definitely know that you will have to rely on Medicaid for your family, then you might want to research Medicaid policies from multiple states to see which states have the best offerings.

If you are over 65, or if you have a dependent family member that is over 65, then you will automatically qualify for Medicaid. You will also automatically qualify if you are on social security or disability.

Another option that you have for low cost health insurance is to use a health discount card. There are a lot of health discount cards available today. These cards provide you with discounts when you visit the doctor, purchase prescriptions, or if you experience an emergency. These cards are not a form of health insurance and should not be considered health insurance. Health discount cards are just like discount club memberships. If you have a child, a health discount card is not an adequate form of insurance. Your child might have significant health needs. A 10% – 30% discount might not cover everything that needs to be covered.

The lowest cost form of actual health insurance available on the market today are some forms of employer offered health insurance plans or high deductible insurance/catastrophic health insurance. If your employer offers good health insurance at low rates then you’re in luck. If they doesn’t, then you might want to do a simple search online for employers that offer health insurance that is affordable to you. There are some companies that offer very good health insurance while paying very little. Some people work at these companies to simply receive the health insurance that their children need. But you can’t forget about all of the other costs of living. While health insurance is very important you will have to weigh the pros and cons of taking a pay cut to receive better health insurance, if you were ever given the opportunity.

One other option you may consider, is having a policy with a higher deductible. High deductible health insurance requires that you make a high deductible payment in the beginning. This means you will have lower monthly payments, but if you cannot afford the initial deductible, you will not receive any coverage from the policy.