eHealth, Inc., the parent company of eHealthInsurance, one of our preferred partners, recently announced the release of a new study on the individual health insurance market.
The analysis provides facts on actual premiums paid for individual health insurance and the nature of accompanying plan benefits. The research, based on a nationwide sample of over 227,000 individual and family major medical policies that were purchased through eHealthInsurance and active in August 2007, revealed the following insights:

– The average monthly premium for individual policies was $158

– The average premium for family policies was $366

– The average deductible for individual policies was $1,972

– The average deductible for family policies was $2,610

– The majority of family policies had annual premiums between $3,400 and $4,650

– Half of all individual policy holders paid less than $130 per month for monthly premiums

– More than half of all family policy holders paid less than $300 per month for monthly premiums

– Women paid, on average, 18% more than men did for individual health insurance premiums

– The average plan lifetime limit was $3.9 million(1)

– A vast majority of individual and family policyholders had lab x-ray, emergency, prescription and chiropractic coverage