The cost of health insurance is far out of reach of millions of Americans and more and more people are losing their health coverage every single day. Fortunately you live in New Hampshire, one of a handful of states that offers some of its citizens an affordable alternative to skyrocketing health insurance prices.

If you have an existing medical condition that is preventing you from purchasing health insurance at a price that you can afford, the state of New Hampshire offers the New Hampshire Health Plan, commonly known as NHHP.

NHHP will automatically provide insurance to individuals who qualify because of existing health conditions or for a variety of other reasons. NHHP policies are kept affordable, allowing many New Hampshire residents the opportunity to purchase health insurance that was denied to them by private insurance or which was outrageously expensive.

But whether you are purchasing traditional health insurance or getting NHHP coverage, there are several steps you can take that will help you get the best rates on health insurance available in New Hampshire.

Start my making certain that you are as health as you can possibly be. That means that you stop smoking or using any type of tobacco product and that, if necessary, you lose weight. Losing even a little weight can reduce the cost of your monthly insurance premiums. As difficult as it is to lose weight or to stop smoking, the benefits of doing either will last for the rest of your life - and it will save you money, too!

If you drive a fancy sports car or a muscle car or if you have a dangerous job or regularly participate in risky or extreme sports you can count on your health insurance premiums being higher. After all, the greater your risk of an injury, the more likely it is to cost the insurance company and so the more they need to charge you each month.

Increasing the percentage of your copay for routine doctor visits or lab work can also reduce your health insurance premiums. This can be an extremely good deal for people who only see their doctor a few times each year on average.

If health insurance is still beyond your reach consider increasing your deductible. The higher your deductible the lower your monthly premium payment will be. In fact, many people are starting to look at health insurance in a whole new light and are purchasing low-cost extremely high deductible health insurance policies as a safety net designed to protect their savings, their home and other assets that they have worked and saved a lifetime for.

The idea behind the low-cost high-deductible policies (with deductibles of $2,000 or even $3,000) is that the insurance won't pay for any routine health care such as doctor's visits, lab work, even simple out-patient surgeries. Instead, the purpose of health insurance is to safeguard a person's home and assets in the event of a catastrophic illness or an accident - the types of things that can run up medical bills in the tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars overnight.

But regardless of what type of health coverage is best for you and your family, your next step is to get online and make comparisons between policies and prices on at least two and preferably three different websites. In this way you will be certain to be comparing all of the different insurance companies that provide health care insurance here in New Hampshire and you will be certain of getting the best rates on health insurance available anywhere in New Hampshire.