This post has been sponsored by PolicyGenius.
The clock is ticking for the January 31st deadline to secure health insurance in 2017. We all know the importance of having health insurance – protecting your assets in case of a catastrophic medical event and making sure you get the highest quality care when you need it. When you are self-employed, choosing health insurance coverage often falls squarely on your shoulders. It can be overwhelming and discouraging to wade through the options, insurance jargon and costs.
Before you jump in and choose a health insurance plan blindly, here’s 3 important factors you need to include in your decision in order in to protect your wallet:
- Are your preferred doctors in your network?
- Do you care about needing a referral to see a specialist this year?
- What medications do you absolutely need covered in your plan?
All three of these factors can have an impact on your premium (the money you pay out-of-pocket to your insurer month). You’ll have to make some important decisions during your shopping process based on your specific needs to bring this price down, but don’t sacrifice in too much or you’ll end up paying more for your deductible, copay and out-of-pocket maximum then you save by the end of the year.
With all these financial terms and jargon that insurers use, I set out to find a better way to shop for health insurance. And, I found, PolicyGenius. They use plain English explanations each step of the way and lay out all the options for you in an easy-to-understand manner.
When you are going through the PolicyGenius health insurance app, they’ll help you set your budget first, with recommendations based on personal finance industry standards. From there you will use a sliding scale to adjust your premium and deductible budgets in-line with what you’ve already budgeted for these categories (or guess like I do until you get a good mix that works for you). Next, the Q&A will prompt you to enter your current doctors and any medications you’re currently prescribed. Then, you’ll rank each of these benefit features as a “must-have” or a “nice-to-have” options, which is the most interesting part of the shopping process. PolicyGenius actually helps you prioritize your health insurance needs so you have an understanding what plan or cost benefits you could gain by being flexible on certain benefits.
Then, in less than 5-minutes from the start of the process, PolicyGenius presents you with your top results. The results are easily comparable and kind of reminded me of shopping for a hotel room or dress on one of my favorite sites. You don’t have to dig into the plan details and read through jargon-heavy PDFs to understand if one plan has an additional benefit that matters to you – PolicyGenius pulls that out, front and center for you.
The user-friendly system will then help you every step of the way:
- When you’re comparing plans, the PolicyGenius health insurance app will show them by ranking your must-haves and nice-to-haves. That way, you’ll be able to see what’s really important to you; if you’d like to continue seeing Dr. Smith but you see she’s only covered by a plan that’s way outside your budget, you might be willing to compromise and choose a plan that’s within your price range and includes your must-haves and most of your nice-to-haves (even if Dr. Smith is left out).
- Through the PolicyGenius app, you will have access to the most health insurance plans available on and off the exchange. All health insurance plans are supported with plain English explanations of benefits, transparent shopping options, and smart decision tools.
- The PolicyGenius health insurance app is focused on the customer journey and leans heavily on their deep expertise in the industry to clarify and educate shoppers throughout the process – so that you know what you are buying upfront.
- Handy sliders let you adjust the premium and deductible you can afford to/want to pay while identifying those must-haves and nice-to-haves.
The PolicyGenius app is free to use. You don’t even need to register. Now that’s a great system! Visit PolicyGenius to start your health insurance shopping.