Thrifty Thursday

Today's Thrifty Thursday advice includes a few ways to save on health cost:

• Ask your doctor for generic prescriptions
• Ask your doctor for sample prescriptions. Don't be shy!
  
• Give up a bad habit such as smoking or alcohol. A pack-a-day smoker will save close to $1,500 in one year by kicking the habit. Plus, you'll be more healthy!
  
• Have regular check-ups. Preventative medicine is a good thing. Try to use local clinics and health departments when possible. If there is a health fair in your town go check it out. It will help you save money on insurance costs and special tests
  
• Question follow up appointments. Many doctors will ask for you to come back in 3-4 weeks, 6 months or even a year. Ask them why. Could a phone call be sufficient? You'll be saving on your co-pays and unnecessary visits.
  
• When you have prescriptions that need to be filled, use your big retailers. I know it may hurt the small town man but when you want to save money, you do what you gotta do. Kroger, Publix and Wal-Mart have some of the best prescription prices in my area. You can use Rxaminer.com to do your own price comparisons.
• Save on health care cost by searching around. FREE Instant Quotes! By getting quotes from different companies from one location you can save time and learn about other companies that you may not have heard of. It's estimated that 46 million Americans don't have health insurance because they feel like it's too expensive. We found a company for our son that only charges us $78 a month for medical and dental. That's very inexpensive and we found it by using a website like eHealthInsurance.
  
• Your larger retail pharmacies will also have days where they give out free vaccinations and other screenings. Stay in touch with these places so you can take advantage of their services.

Of course there are more ... What are ways you've saved on health insurance costs?