Before You Get Sick, Shop Around

· Humana Inc., in partnership with advocacy group Consumer Action, has created a Web site ( http://www.familyhealthbudget.com/ ) that includes a free family health budget planner. The site was developed in response to a survey by Harris Interactive that found two out of three respondents said they needed help budgeting for health care.

On the site you will find a number of tools to help you choose the best health-care plan and benefits. The planner takes you through a step-by-step questionnaire asking for information such as your current insurance status, how many times members of your family go to the doctor, how often prescription medicines are purchased and how often the family visits the dentist, eye doctor or other specialists.

Once you've entered the information, you get an estimate of how much you need to set aside for health expenses for the year.

· WageWorks ( http://www.wageworks.com/ ), a provider of consumer-driven, tax-advantaged spending accounts for health and dependent care, has a health-care flexible spending account or FSA calculator. An FSA lets you set aside a certain amount of money before taxes to pay for qualified medical expenses. The calculator helps you figure out if this type of account is right for you.

· EHealthInsurance ( http://www.ehealthinsurance.com/ ) is a good resource for people who need to buy their own insurance. On this site you'll find a large selection of health plans and the ability to compare costs.

· HealthDecisions.org ( http://www.healthdecisions.org/ ) will give you information on 1,300 health plans and tens of thousands of agents and brokers nationwide.

· HealthGrades ( http://www.healthgrades.com/ ) is a health-care ratings company based in Golden, Colo., that sells reports on the cost of 55 medical procedures, based on regional averages of payments made by health plans. One report costs $7.95 but if you are facing a high deductible, it's worth the price to get detailed pricing information. You can also get physician reports, which include the amount individual physicians are paid by Medicare for more than 100 types of procedures and visits.

HealthGrades also offers hospital ratings of 28 procedures and diagnoses at more than 5,000 hospitals free of charge. If you know you'll need to be hospitalized, for $17.95 ($2.95 for subsequent reports) you can get a more detailed hospital report that looks at the price of nearly 100 procedures.

Before you buy a report, check with your employer because HealthGrades works with 125 major corporations to provide them for free as a benefit, according to Scott Shapiro, HealthGrades vice president for corporate communications.

There's no question that figuring out your annual medical costs and what health plan is best won't be easy. It's definitely not as easy as pricing out a fully loaded Honda Accord. But when it comes to your health care, spend at least the same amount of time calculating the costs as you do pricing out your new ride.

· On the air: Michelle Singletary discusses personal finance Tuesdays on NPR's "Day to Day" program and online athttp://www.npr.org.

· By mail: Readers can write to her at The Washington Post, 1150 15th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20071.

· By e-mail:singletarym@washpost.com.

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