Everyone likes to save a buck, especially these days. However, in some instances, cheaper may not be better. In fact, cutting corners on things like your health insurance may end up costing you more money in the long run. As it is with car insurance, the cheapest of policies often provide patients with only a bare minimum of health insurance coverage.

The cheapest health insurance policies also are more likely to have a higher deductible. If you're a young, healthy person who rarely gets sick, having the cheapest health insurance you can get might be okay. But for the rest of us, the people who may actually need or expect to see a doctor during the course of a year, it is almost always better to spend a little more on your monthly dues to get more comprehensive health insurance coverage and a lower deductible.

One of the most immediately positive aspects of the new health care legislation is that it is forcing millions of new customers into the market. This is fostering more competition amongst insurers and is already leading some to offer more affordable health insurance quotes.

Cheaper health insurance plans may also be more likely to place restrictions on the doctor you choose to see. Often the cheaper plans have a specified pool of doctors and other health care providers for you to choose from. Some cheap plans don't even allow you to choose and will go as far as to assign you a doctor. The cheapest of policies often conceal a number of extra fees and costs. In addition to your monthly bills and your already high premiums, cost control elements such as referrals and other authorization can end up costing you more money.

HMOs tend to be the cheapest health insurance policies available on the market. PPOs usually have more expensive monthly fees than HMOs, but they tend to offer many advantages over the cheaper policies. PPOs offer financial incentives to see doctors on their network and allow you to see doctors who aren't on their network at a reduced rate. They also only require that you pay a small co-payment for office visits rather than the co-payment and large deductible often demanded for cheaper policies. PPOs offer everything that is good about HMOs, including minimal paperwork and comprehensive coverage.

Getting a policy with a rock-bottom low monthly fee may seem like a great idea at first, but when you actually end up having to use your coverage, you might find yourself wishing you'd shopped around for health insurance quotes that offered more comprehensive coverage for a little more cost.