Looking for a Minnesota health insurance plan that won’t cost an arm and a leg? Here’s how to find low-cost health insurance in Minnesota from a company you can trust.

Minnesota State Health Insurance

Minnesota has several state-sponsored insurance programs for low-income individuals and families. These include:

* The Minnesota Medical Assistance program, which provides health care to low-income Minnesotans. This program is different from Medicare, which is a Federally sponsored program for people age 65 and older and people with disabilities.

* The Minnesota General Assistance Health Care program, which provides health care to low-income Minnesotans who are not eligible for state or federally sponsored health care programs.

* The Minnesota Care Plan, which provides health care to low-income, uninsured Minnesota workers.

For more information about these Minnesota health insurance programs, call your county human services agency or visit the Minnesota Department of Health website at: health.state.mn.us/healthcare.html.

Private Health Insurance

There are two types of health insurance plans available in Minnesota. They are:

* Fee-for-service plans (also known as indemnity plans), which pay all or most of your doctor’s fees, hospital fees, and prescription drug costs after you pay a deductible (usually $500 to $2,000). These plans allow you to choose your doctor and hospital and are the most expensive of the health plans.

* Managed care plans, including HMOs, PPOs, and POS, that pay your doctor’s fee, hospital fee, and prescription drug costs after you pay a copay (usually $5-$10 per doctor visit). With these plans you are assigned to a network of doctors and hospitals. PPOs and POS allow you to use an out-of-network doctor or hospital for an additional fee. HMOs are the cheapest of all health plans, followed by PPOs and POS.

Low Cost Health Insurance

To get low cost health insurance, you need to shop around for rates. The easiest way to do this is to go online to an insurance comparison website.