My husband and I are trying, once again, to find affordable health insurance coverage. Last night, he spent around two hours filling out a lengthy and detailed application form for both of us. The whole process, from start to finish, was tedious. Hopefully, it will result in health insurance coverage.
The last time we made a serious attempt to get health insurance, it was through State Farm. We selected State Farm because it is the company that we have our life insurance policies, and our auto insurance policy, through. Unfortunately, the health insurance premiums offered by State Farm were too expensive for us to afford.
Our State Farm agent suggested that we try working with a local insurance broker. At the time, we were too disappointed about being unable to find affordable health insurance, so we procrastinated about getting in touch with the broker.
Last night, my husband went to the website of the insurance broker. He clicked on the link that said “health insurance”. This brought him to a new screen where he would, eventually, get instant quotes for health insurance policies.
The system asked him to put in an email address, his name, and the ages and birth dates of everyone he wished to cover with a health insurance policy. In our case, we are looking for coverage for the two of us. We have no children. After he entered this information, the “Quotit” service gave him details about the cost of premiums from six different health insurance companies. It also showed what each policy would cover.
Out if the six, it turned out that Anthem was the cheapest of them all, by far. It had the lowest premiums. It also had a deductible, but we didn’t pay very close attention to what it was. This was because the cost of premiums from the other five companies was much higher than we could afford. It was Anthem, or nothing.
Next, the system showed a list of different health insurance plans from Anthem. Only the first four plans were within our price range. The rest were not an option, because the price was too high. My husband found two plans that we could afford that he liked. One was the cheapest plan that was offered, and the other was a plan that cost $30.00 more for premiums than the cheapest plan did.
The system lets people compare two plans. It turned out that the slightly more expensive one had a lower deductible. Other than that, the two policies were nearly identical. We selected the plan that had a lower deductible, instead of the one that had slightly less expensive premiums.
You can apply for this insurance plan online. Or, you can print out the lengthy application form, and mail it to the insurance broker. My husband spent two hours filling out the form online. It had detailed questions about every possible health condition that a person could possibly have, (or that they may have had in the past).
It will take three to five business days before we will find out if we have been accepted or rejected for health insurance. The broker sent my husband an email with an application control number on it. The email also had a link to the pdf version of the application, and information for people who want to enroll someone who is under the age of 19. All that is left to do now is wait.
Image by Josh Evnin on Flickr