I Need Health Insurance, Help Me, Please!
Finding the Right Answers
Dan L Conrad, LUTCF, Mediqwest, September 2, 2015
You need help finding the individual health insurance
plan that is best suited to you and your particular needs
and circumstance, right? Where do you turn?
There are two categories of assistance health
insurance shoppers commonly turn to, people help and
technological help. Within the people category, you
can meet with someone in person or over the phone.
There are two sub-categories of people help, navigators
and insurance agents. However, only insurance agents
are licensed by the states they do business in, are
appointed by the insurance company(ies) they
represent and are trained, informed and authorized to
advise you about your insurance product choices.
Navigators are trained and financially compensated to
(1) help determine whether or not you are eligible for a
federal tax credit and (2) if eligible, determine the amount
of the tax credit, and how you want to receive the tax
credit.
Subsequent to these determinations, navigators are not
qualified or authorized to help you select from the health
insurance products available in your particular zip code.
If, up to this point you have been working on your own,
or with a navigator, you are expected to select the plan
that is “best” for you without any “recommendation” or
informed advice from anyone—anyone but yourself.
Remember the question I posed at the beginning of
this article? You need help finding the individual health
insurance plan that is best suited to your particular needs
and circumstance, right?
Whether or not you are eligible for a federal tax
credit, should you be left to your own devices when
it comes to selecting the best health insurance plan
for you, and even more importantly, for your family?
Today’s technologically sophisticated, consumer-driven
economy is well suited to the technological help
option, theoretically. If you are computer savvy and
have access to the internet and a computer, you will
find on-line tools to get you from beginning to end,
all on your own, if all goes well. These on-line tools are
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websites, called Marketplaces. There are two categories
of Marketplaces, state and federally sponsored. The
Marketplace in Minnesota, state sponsored, can be found
at www.mnsure.org. Wisconsin residents can go to the
federally sponsored site www.healthcare.gov.
These Marketplace websites will allow you to determine
on your own whether or not you are eligible for the tax
credit, what the tax credit is, and how you will receive the
tax credit. Then, the website will reveal the health plans
available in your zip code, allowing you to make your
selection, on your own — no advice, no recommendation
—just like the navigator option.
Let’s assume you are not eligible for the income-based
tax credit, now what? Easy peasy. Do not go to a
navigator. Do not go to www.mnsure.org.