Cheap health insurance sounds like an impossibility to most people, and it's true that health insurance is no longer "cheap," but there are several steps you can take that can - combined - dramatically reduce the cost of health insurance for thousands of Massachusetts residents.

One of the best ways to save money on health insurance is to purchase it online. Online sales involve a lot less cost and overhead and the savings is passed along to you. However, before you get online and just start randomly filling out forms on websites that let you compare health insurance prices, you would do well to finish reading this article and find out how to correctly fill out the forms so that you will end up with the best price possible. Otherwise you are pretty much wasting your time.

Let's start with a few lifestyle issues. The healthier you eat and the more exercise you get the less most people will have need of medical services. It should come as no shock that eating fast foods and fried foods will not improve your health. Make a conscious effort to limit the number of days each month that you eat fast food.

Also, get at least a little exercise each day. Exercise does not mean that you have to go to a gym or use the latest gizmo from an infomercial. Exercise can be as simple as briskly walking around your block - or perhaps joining an early morning group that walks your local mall. Any exercise is better than none.

If you're really and truly serious about wanting to get cheap health insurance online in Massachusetts then you're going to have to stop smoking and stop using chew or any other tobacco product.

Also, if you are overweight you are going to have to lose weight. I know you've tried to lose weight a thousands times and it's not easy - in fact, losing weight is one of the most difficult things most people who are looking for cheap health insurance will have to do. But the fact remains that a large portion of your health insurance cost is based on your BMI (Body Mass Index) and the lower your BMI the lower your monthly cost of health insurance.

The good news is that often if you can just lose a few pounds you may slip down a notch on the insurance company's BMI scale - if that happens then you can potentially save hundreds of dollars a year in health insurance costs. Every pound helps.

Look for group health insurance. Group health insurance is not quite so picky about smoking and weight and can save you quite a bit of money. If your place of work does not offer group health insurance then ask around at any clubs, organizations or associations you belong to. Many of them offer a low cost group health insurance to their members.

If not, ask your friends and family if any of their groups or associations offer their members group health insurance. If so, ask about joining.

Sometimes religious organizations have group health insurance. It doesn't hurt to ask.

Don't take part in extreme sports or dangerous hobbies. Also, drive a sensible car - driving a flashy and fast sports car can increase your monthly cost of health insurance.

Believe it or not your credit rating can also affect how much you pay for your health insurance, so watch the use of those credit cards! The better your credit score the less you'll pay for health insurance.

Can you afford a 50% co-payment each time you visit your doctor's office? If you can afford it, a 50% co-pay will greatly reduce your monthly health insurance costs.

How big of a deductible can you afford? If you can afford to increase your deductible you will lower the monthly cost of your health insurance. Of course you need to be careful since you will have to come up with your deductible out of your own pocket or purse each year before your insurance company will start paying for anything. So make sure you can afford to pay your deductible before you increase it.

Finally it's time to go online and find a minimum of 3 different websites that let you make quick and easy comparisons of prices between different health insurance companies. What you need to do is to use the information you have gathered from this article to fill out the forms on at least 3 different price comparison websites.

Make sure that you put the exact same information onto all three websites so that you are comparing the same health insurance policy each time - and then simply choose the lowest-price policy that comes up! That's really all there is to it. If you do your homework (in other words, read this article) and then you compare prices on the same policy on a minimum of 3 different sites, you will get cheap health insurance in Massachusetts and you'll save money month after month for years to come.