Can you find affordable health insurance online?

Not only can you find affordable health insurance online, but in some cases it is the best way to find it. While WebMD  suggests that getting insurance through an employer is usually cheaper if it’s offered, the variety of companies and plans you can find on the internet make it well worthwhile to shop around online. There are plenty of good comparison sites that will allow you to search for health insurance in your area and compare the pros and cons of several different companies and policies.

If you are ready to compare health insurance policies in your area, type your ZIP code into the FREE search box now!

If you’re looking for insurance online, you need to have a clear idea of what is important to you. There are many variables to consider when choosing health insurance, including cost of premiums, cost of deductibles, cost of copayments, size of network, flexibility to go out of network, flexibility to choose a specialist and more. It’s a good idea to have these variables clearly ranked in order of importance to you before you begin to try to make comparisons between insurance companies and policies.

While it will be nearly impossible to find a health insurance company that matches all of your criteria perfectly, if you are thorough enough, you will probably find a close match. Doing a good health insurance comparison will save you money.

Online Quotes

Insurance companies are more than happy to give you a health insurance quote online.

Usually you just have to enter some basic background information to get an online quote in just a few minutes, or even seconds.

One thing to beware of is that sometimes a company will quote you one price and try to charge you a different price. Unscrupulous companies are always a danger on the web, so you should be careful to read the fine print on any deal and check the validity of a website before giving out any personal information.

Recognizing Scams

Recently, con artists have been using the Affordable Care Act’s 2014 mandate that everyone have health insurance to try to scare people into buying scam health insurance policies. According to the Scambusters website, there are a few telltale signs of a scam. A good general rule is that if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Some of the things to look out for, according to Scambusters, include persistent phone calls and emails with unrealistically low priced offers, high pressure to sign up immediately, or evasiveness on the part of the seller. Some of these scams will involve people claiming to represent a government agency, others will have people claiming to represent a union or organization you need to join to get health insurance.

Sometimes you can’t recognize a health insurance scam until after you’ve been taken.

The first sign is usually that your insurance card never shows up after you give your information. Sometimes, though, the scam can keep going and you never know you’re dealing with a fraudulent insurance company until you try to file a claim and they don’t pay.

Medicare

According to the Medicare website you can apply for Medicare health insurance and submit a variety of forms online. That is assuming you are eligible for Medicare, the government health plan for the elderly, in the first place. You can submit forms, appeals, requests for payment, or disclosure of information via the Medicare website.

To be eligible for Medicare, you must be 65 years old or older, unless you have certain serious health conditions that may make you eligible at a younger age. Basically, if you qualify for Social Security, you probably qualify for Medicare.

Medicaid

Because Medicaid health insurance is administered by each individual state, each state has different rules for applying. Some states may offer an online application option, and some may not. The best bet would be to check your state’s website and see what their application process is.

There are some websites that advertise an online application for Medicaid, but if they are not run by a state government, they should be viewed with suspicion. There are some legitimate websites that may help you find which benefits you qualify for and then send you to your state’s website. Others are just scams to get your personal information or sell you a service you probably don’t need.

Need to find affordable quotes on various health insurance plans? Type your ZIP code into the FREE search box now!