Open enrolment is almost upon us once again. November 1, 2015.
Perhaps the information you have gotten has been spotty or downright incorrect. You do not have to navigate the landscape of health insurance alone or even with the Covered California phone operators. The people that take your calls at Covered California are hourly waged employees. They do not understand the landscape fully. Covered California can tell you how much it will cost you. Knowing what is covered and what isn’t covered ,and your own liabilities or even how their plans differ from plans off the exchange, is not something that is their responsibility. Here are some tips.
Find an Insurance Broker in California who is a licensed by the state to sell plans on and off the exchange. (To sell the plans on the exchange agents had to go thru special classes) What to look for.
- Brokers who are independent. They can sell any carrier they choose. Their priority should be finding you the right coverage. This is a great piece of information no matter what type of personal insurance you may need. Be it Health, Life or Disability.
- The independent broker you find should have been in business for at least ten years.
- Do some of your own research. If you have a specific doctor that you absolutely do NOT want to lose call that doctors office and talk to them about which plans they are providers for.
There have been some misconceptions regarding using an agent because of the commercials on television. Your monthly premiums are exactly the same whether you use a broker like us, or if you use the Covered California site, no difference in cost to you. What WE might save you is money in premiums or even your future good health.
You need to be very careful with ideas and words used for this new type of health coverage. The words that are being used in this new era of health insurance are “All plans are ACA compliant” So what does that mean are they equal?
The answer is complicated. There are standard benefits they must cover. Such as a once a year physical, however after that, there are many variations to your personal coverage. No one can force a doctor to take any given plan. Why wouldn’t a doctor take a plan? Because the plans sold off the exchange do not pay the doctors the same amount. So if you need a specialist and you can’t find one that takes your insurance, is that insurance useful?
It becomes very important to look for plans on and off the exchange. You need to comparison shop. Is it more important to have a bigger network of physicians should you need them or is it important to have a subsidy? If you are young the price may be exactly the same going on or off the exchange. But the coverage is not equal.
Next we will talk about what is a “qualifying event’ And how the moment you have one you need to act immediately!
If you have questions about any insurance matter please do give us a call us toll free 877.728.6590.