If you were employed by a company who is required to offer COBRA insurance, you’re fortunate to have options. COBRA provides 18 months of continuous coverage. And the Federal Government’s Economic Stimulus Package created a COBRA subsidy requiring companies to pay 65% of your health insurance premiums for the first 9 of the 18 months after losing your job.  However, you may find that even with this premium reduction, health insurance is still too expensive. What if your company goes out of business? Or discontinues the health insurance plan? Or you don’t qualify for COBRA benefits in the first place? Now what?

Is there an alternative to expensive COBRA health insurance?

Yes, there is. But caution is advised. If you are in poor health or want to keep your current doctors and plan, you may want to take advantage of the COBRA option. You cannot be denied coverage or charged a higher premium. In any case, do not reject COBRA insurance until you are positive you can receive coverage elsewhere.

Health Insurance Option 1:

Join an association. Often group health packages provide a significant savings and benefits. As one option, check out your local Chamber of Commerce.

Health Insurance Option 2:

If you are married, research the cost and coverage provided through your spouse’s plan. Due to job loss, you can be added to their plan even if it is not open enrollment.

Health Insurance Option 3:

Go shopping for personal health insurance. The problem is …Where do you start shopping for health insurance?  Who can you trust?

eHealth Insurance Recommended by Kiplinger

Kiplinger rated eHealth Insurance as the best health insurance website for 2008. eHealth provides Free Health Insurance Price Comparisons for Individuals and Families. This site helps you compare only those insurers who are available in your particular state.

This is how it works:

Select your insurance type from the drop down menu and fill in your zip code. Click “Get Quotes”.  You will be taken to an application page like the one below. Notice they do not ask for any personal information. No name, address, email or health information. So there is no risk or follow up if you don’t want to hear from them again. Just good solid information. They only time you enter personal information is if and when you choose to apply.

eHealth Insurance Application - Recommended by Kiplinger

To begin your health insurance research, just fill in your birth date and the birth dates of anyone else within your family you are interested in receiving a health insurance quote for. Also be sure to honestly answer the questions marked with a green arrow if you want reliable comparison quotes.

NOTE:  Whenever you fill out insurance forms, it’s important to be completely honest. When you need to file a claim, you don’t want the insurance company to have any grounds for not allowing the claim. This goes for both health and life insurance.

You will see there is an “https” in the browser address, which means this is a secure site.  Also note the Truste certified and Verisign Secured icons at the bottom of the page.

Instant eHealth Insurance Quotes

Instantly you will receive insurance quotes for health insurance based on your age and location.

For example, in Ohio where I’m located, eHealth will return quotes from Aetna, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Celtic Ins. Co., Companion Life Insurance Company, Golden Rule, HealthAmerica, Humana, Kaiser Permanente of Ohio, Medical Mutual, and SummaCare Inc. of Ohio. There are 180 carriers that eHealth can quote, so depending on your state you may receive quotes from different health insurance carriers than I did.

The top quotes are “sponsored links” which means the insurance company paid to be here. Not necessarily a bad thing, but something you should be aware of. Below that (I highlighted in yellow) are what eHealth calls “Best Quotes”. These quotes are extremely useful for side by side comparisons of both pricing and benefits.

eHealth can do this because they aren’t an insurance company, they are an insurance agency using local agents to answer your questions.

You cannot go wrong using this service for research. They have insured over 1 million customers.

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to submit them below. I’m very interested in hearing about how you have solved any health insurance issues.

Want a local insurance agent? A health insurance broker can help you shop price, company reputation, and has a good understanding of the features and benefits you should consider. To find a local agent, check out the National Association of Health Underwriters. Checking with eHealth Insurance first will give you a good idea of what to expect and to be able to discuss the options you feel are important to your situation.