Family health care plans can be the most costly part of your budget but also one of the most important. In order to find the best rates on family health care plans you need to first know your needs and then purchase a plan that offers the lowest cost coverage for those specific needs.

While you may not know exactly what the future brings, you do know your history of medical costs. Do you visit the doctor frequently? Do you take pride in having all the necessary precautionary tests? Are you healthy and do you seldom visit a physician? What can you afford in payments? Do you have a specific doctor or hospital that you insist want to retain? These are all questions that require an answer before you purchase health insurance.

Health insurance comes in two varieties. Indemnity policies are the traditional health policies. You pay a deductible each year, an amount before the insurance company picks up any of the expense. After that, you pay co-insurance, a percentage of the cost, until you reach an annual out of pocket maximum.

The second type of the family health care plans is the managed care plan. Managed family health care plans companies make an agreement with a specified group of doctors for a lower cost. As long as you use those doctors or health care providers, you only pay a small co-pay each visit. If you have an HMO managed care plan, they don't pay anything when you use other doctors or service providers and don't count it toward your maximum out of pocket amount. POS and PPOs, however, allow you to use other providers but you pay more in co-pays and out of pocket expenses.

Your budget and needs dictate the type of health insurance you'll select. You can save quite a bit of money by using a high deductible health insurance plan with a health savings account. This type of indemnity plan often has a deductible of $1500 each year or higher. The cost of the plan is very low because of the amount you pay out of pocket each year. You put some of the money you save on insurance premiums into a side savings, the HSA, health savings account. It grows tax-free as long as you use it for health care expenses. If you don't use it to offset the expenses of the high deductible, it transfers to the next year and is yours to keep.

Managed family health care plans also offer considerable savings over the traditional family health care insurance plans. However, if your doctor or hospital isn't on the list or you have to travel to a doctor or health care provider that's a considerable distance, you might not find the inconvenience worth the savings.

You save money on managed care plans by opting for a higher co-pay when you receive services. If your budget is tight and you find a managed care plan that offers facilities near you or one's you normally use, consider increasing the amount of the co-pay to make the family care health plan more affordable.

Before you buy, always shop for the best price. However, you must make certain that all family health care plans are equal before you purchase. The easiest way to do this is to use a health insurance site that offers side-by-side comparisons.