A Brief Guide On Comparing the Prices Of Health Insurance On The Healthcare.gov Website

Importance Of Shopping Yourself

Several parts of the country have a number of choices and plans available for health insurance. More importantly, Healthcare.gov has gotten more user-friendly and that has, in turn, made picking the appropriate coverage easier.

There are a lot of people who prefer when agents check out the different health insurance on their behalf. If that is how you choose to go about yours, then you should employ due diligence in double checking your agent’s recommendation. Doing so is advisable because there are agents who are only permitted to sell a single insurance carrier and so they may keep the other options away from you.

Be sure to double check what your agent tells you to ensure that it is the actually the best  deal you can get

In addition, if your income falls below the poverty level of 250%, it qualifies you to get reduced deductibles and also out-of-pocket expenses. However, that only comes if the silver plan is your choice and there are agents who may not highlight that. The importance of knowing the different available options and comparing the choices cannot be overemphasized. Below is a guide on how you can shop for health coverage on Healthcare.gov.

Getting Started

To begin the check yourself, you need to create a list of doctors you use and also the medications you take. Next, you need to estimate your income from 2019. In a case when your income comes in higher than 400% poverty level then you will not get a tax credit to help you in making payment for your insurance.

If you do not want to log into an account and only want to look around on Healthcare.gov, then go to the home page and you’ll see a corner where you click “Get Coverage”.

Next, you see where you can preview the available plans. Go ahead to input your zip code. Select “No” as an answer to the question if you are currently enrolled in a Marketplace health plan for 2018. Then, fill in all the other queries as they come.

You also get to fill in the estimate of your household income. As soon as you click “enter”, the website determines whether or not you are qualified for the credit, how much credit and also if you are entitled to cost-sharing subsidies.

For the cost-sharing subsidies, hit “Continue to Plans” and then the pop-up gives you information about comparing plans. Close the pop-ups and then you get to see all available plans. Next, you click to see if the drugs and providers are covered.

The website determines whether or not you are qualified for credit and also how much credit you qualify for.

Selecting Drugs And Providers

You get to input your provider’s names and then the drop down gives you a list containing choices. Select the choice that best suits you. Next, you click on “Add drug” to proceed to add your medications. Input the drug’s name, select the appropriate drug as well as the dose. In a situation where you want to include more drugs.

Then you can click to view or edit your selections till all the medications have been included. However, note that the more drugs you include, the lower the probability that there will be an insurance plan that can cover all. As such, it may be necessary to speak to your doctor about changing your prescriptions to the drugs that the insurance company has.

The more drugs you include, the lower the probability that you will get an insurance plan that can cover all

As soon as you are done inputting the list of drugs and the doctor, then hit “See plans” and the site will highlight all the plans available. In this situation, the numbers of medications and providers you take that are covered in the plan will be listed. Next, you need to refine your results.

Click on “refine results” and you get the opportunity to streamline the results based on the plan be it bronze or silver or gold or platinum. Also, you get to streamline the options based on whether it is premium or deductible plan and also the type of the health plan be it EPO OR HMO.

Comparing Available Plans

It is advisable that you begin with the level of the plan and next to the type of health plan and also the drugs and doctors covered. If you are okay with your doctor who offers primary care and trusts the doctor’s referrals when it comes to specialists, then HMO might be a good choice. However, in case you want to get to choose your specialists yourself then the EPO may be a good choice.

Since you are still shopping then you can leave the options unchecked as that helps you to compare prices. You need to look through the available plans so you can choose that which has the most coverage for drugs and providers at the most affordable price. You then hit compare in each of the plans for as much as three plans so you can compare the available details.