If you’re looking to buy your own health and insurance, shopping and comparing policies online can help you save both time and money. It’s fairly simple to get an idea of your coverage and expenses thanks to websites that offer estimates on different insurance types. Please be aware, though, that utilizing an insurance broker can have its drawbacks, as I learned only a year ago.
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I have my own health and life insurance as a self-employed person for my family. I was aware of the following two items regarding our health insurance in 2004 when we relocated from New Jersey to North Carolina:
1. I’d need to look around for a health insurance company that covers North Carolina.
2. Prices should be approximately half of what I had been paying, with slightly better insurance, than that in New Jersey.
I requested rates from a reputable internet insurance broker a few weeks before our move. About 10 days before to our departure, we chose one firm and received the necessary documentation from the broker. Since all of our free time was spent planning and moving, I honestly wish I had started the process a little sooner. As a result, I had to pack the documentation with my personal belongings and wasn’t able to complete it until one week after our arrival in North Carolina. For more research click here.
It was easy to deal with the online insurance broker, but I soon realized that they were just a step in the application procedure that delayed down our approval.
The broker acknowledged receipt of the documentation through email and stated that it will be reviewed before being sent on to the health insurance provider.
We received mails from the insurance broker over the following few weeks informing us of the following:
1. Your application is currently being reviewed.
2. The insurance provider has received your application.
3. Your application has been received by the insurance provider, who will assess it in about a week.
4. Because of the large number of applications it has received, the insurance company anticipates a delay in reviewing your application.
5. We will keep you informed of the progress of your application, so please do not get in touch with the insurance provider directly. Right, I see.
Initially, the insurance broker told us that the health and insurance provider would examine and accept our application in two weeks. We followed up with the broker by phone, and several emails were exchanged until it became clear that this would not happen. Additionally, the broker encouraged us to contact the health and insurance provider directly, but when we did, the provider had trouble locating our application. A few days later, the application was discovered in another division; our contact at the health and insurance provider accused the broker of sending the data to the incorrect location.
It turns out that the initial insurance estimate we got online was wrong by more than 20%. Our prices increased once the health and insurance provider decided that a few pre-existing conditions needed to be taken into account. The significant surge was nonetheless a difficult pill to swallow even though we were aware that the rate provided while working with the internet broker wasn’t “absolute.” For more tips visit our site ArticlesHubs.
We had the following thoughts at that stage of the process:
1. We might have done more research if we had realised that our “final rate” could be so high.
2. Due to the delays and passing of time, we had to finish the application procedure so that we could discontinue our coverage with the NJ health provider, ideally by the end of the year.
Ten weeks after submitting our paperwork, by the middle of December, we had got official word that our application had been accepted and that we were now protected. We repeatedly contacted the health and insurance provider to inquire about the status of our application over the last several weeks of the protracted application procedure. We were effectively promised that coverage would start pending approval at every stage of the procedure, but we were never given any assurances that we would be approved.
As a conclusion, I provide the following advice for choosing health insurance:
1. Online comparison shop. To acquire a basic estimate of your prices, request quotes from the web brokers. The prices listed won’t be included in your quote if you have pre-existing conditions.
2. Select three companies from the list of those quoted, then get in touch with them. Bypass the broker since they add an unneeded step to an approval procedure that isn’t going to be quick.
3. If you need insurance by a specific date, apply far in advance to account for potential delays, lost documentation, application modifications, etc. We were able to delay the effective date of our health and insurance coverage so that it would coincide with the termination of our NJ health care provider after it had been approved for a certain date.
Overall, the experience was eye-opening and somewhat wearisome. You undoubtedly frequently notice advertisements for internet health and insurance quotes. While I don’t advise avoiding the websites, please remember the struggles we faced prior to switching to an online broker. May you can see about High Deductibles And Health Insurance.
