Your health insurance program was purchased for a specific time period, usually for one year. During that time, the premium you pay for coverage must remain constant. The provider cannot make rate adjustments or change premiums until the existing term has expired. At that time, you will learn what the new premiums will be for the next term unless you have included a level term or fixed term feature in your policy.

The cost of a health insurance program can change for many reasons. Some are directly related to your state of health at the time of policy renewal or to changes in your living conditions or lifestyle habits. Some are a product of changes in your coverage features. But there is another reason that your premium cost can change and that is rate adjustments by your insurance company. This type of increase reflects changes in the company's operating procedures and profitability and has nothing to do with you or your medical condition. These rate adjustments are part of business as usual and occur from time to time with all providers.

Before a health care provider can initiate a rate increase it must, by law, notify its policy holders in writing well in advance of the proposed date of change, This allows the policy holder to plan for the increased expense, to make changes to his policy options if necessary or possibly to shop for another carrier and perhaps a better price. More commonly however, carriers prefer to target their upward rate adjustments to new customers rather than existing ones in an effort to prevent losing them to competitors with better pricing.

It is entirely possible that an increase in the cost of your health insurance program will have little effect on your coverage or your life. Often the increases are marginal with only minor impact on the family budget and your coverage can remain unchanged. If the rate adjustments are significant though, you do have options to help you deal with the new situation. One option as previously stated, is to shop for comparable coverage at a lower price. This is the best possible scenario but not very likely. For a small savings, you are better off staying with the company and the coverage that you already know.

If the change in cost makes a real difference in your financial situation, you have the ability to revisit the features of your existing policy to look for specific coverage options that may not be essential. When coverage is cheap, we buy all we can. When it becomes more expensive, it may be wise to stick with the protection of a good quality, basic coverage health insurance program.