If you’re like most people living in the United States, having health insurance from a reputable health insurance company is an absolute must. After all, health care plans come in many different varieties, meaning that you’ll have to take time to decide what the right one is for you. For a great many people, health insurance companies often work through their places of employment, helping them to choose a health care company (and subsequent health plan) with much greater ease. But why should you utilize the services that any given health care company has to offer you?

For one thing, you never know when disaster might strike, for even the healthiest of people can need emergency medical attention for something like a serious injury, such as one sustained in a motor vehicle accident. Having a catastrophic health plan from your health insurance company will certainly be hugely important in such situations, as this catastrophic health insurance will go a long way towards covering hospital fees and making them much more manageable. For instance, even just an emergency room visit is likely to cost upwards of $1,000. For many people, this cost would be hugely difficult to take without the help of their health insurance plans as provided to them by the health insurance company in question. And with more than 32% of all healthcare spending seen in hospitals over the course of the year of 2015 alone (a percentage that has only increased with the years that have followed since), it is clear to see why such healthcare through the typical health insurance company is very much needed indeed.

Of course, the health insurance company that you utilize can provide you with health care past the scope of emergency health care and catastrophic health care. Health care for chronic conditions has, for example, becoming more and more important. After all, chronic conditions are on the rise, particularly as the Baby Boomer generation reaches their elderly years. For many people, taking prescription medication is an absolute must in order to maintain good health – or even just to stay alive, for that matter. Unfortunately, the one year gap between the year of 2014 and the year of 2015 alone saw costs of such prescription medications climb by as much as a full 9%. Of course, this was hugely detrimental to those paying for these pills, but was something mitigated by having a good health plan. Having a good health plan can, in such situations, make all the difference indeed, to say the very least.

As any health insurance company knows, providing for regular check ups is also very much important – even for people who are otherwise healthy. No matter what your physical state, you should be going in to see your general care practitioner at least once throughout the course of every single year. For many people, this well check up can give them a great peace of mind. For other people, it can actually help to improve their overall health, as issues that would otherwise not be noticed can come into focus during something like a well check up.

Of course, the average person should be taking as many steps as they possibly can to stay in good health. For one thing, many of us are leading far too sedentary lifestyles, something that has only been worsened by the number of us that work desk jobs requiring little to no movement over the course of the typical day. But movement is key and critical to living a healthy lifestyle. In fact, the data that has been gathered on the subject is very much in full support of this fact. It has even found that exercising a mere seven hours additionally over the course of a single week is actually something that can help to lengthen the overall course of your life. And hiking for just one single hour over the course of a week is something that can burn upwards of 500 total calories – which is certainly very impressive, to say the least. Even just taking the time to walk more can have a huge impact – and a positive one, for that matter – on any given person’s overall health.