However you got here, there's a good chance you're overpaying for worse coverage.
Each market is priced on something different, and nobody's job is explaining the difference. Give me twenty minutes and I'll compare all of them, then walk you through the best fit.
FREE · NO OBLIGATION · YOU TALK TO ME, NOT A CALL CENTER
01 · The part nobody explains
Four markets. Priced on completely different things.
One is priced on your income, one on your health, one on your age, and one on what an employer puts in. That is what sets the rate, so the same person can be the cheapest case in one market and the most expensive in the next.
Which one is best is fully situational, so that is where this starts. If you would rather see all four side by side first, here they are.
Who calls me most
Four situations, over and over.
If one of these is close to yours, it's worth twenty minutes.
Self-employed & small business
No HR department, no group plan, and a premium out of nowhere in January, whether that's just you or twenty people you'd rather not lose over it.
Families
One family plan that triples in price the moment you add a spouse or kids.
Between jobs
COBRA quotes that make your eyes water, and a special enrollment window already counting down.
Healthy, and going without
Healthy, nothing has gone wrong yet, and the rate you saw on the public market looked like the only number out there. It isn't, and neither is the tax treatment.
The first step, for all four
Know where you stand before anybody signs you up for anything.
Four considerations.
03 · Where each network pays
Licensed in 31 states. Coverage that works in all 50.
I'm in Tampa. The call works from anywhere on the map.
Tap it on the map, or choose it from the list. Mine, you get a yes. Not mine, the next best thing.
Illustration only · not a real plan's network
Based in Tampa, Florida · licensed in 31 states, nationwide
HMO. The network is local, usually one metro or one state, so the map zooms in on Florida, and the green circles are the only places routine care is paid for. Everything hatched is not covered, Florida between the circles included: outside the network you have emergency coverage and nothing else. It is the cheapest of the four, and this map is why.
EPO. The green circles here are a Southeast network, and everything between them is hatched instead of blue: a doctor who is not in the network is not covered, outside an emergency, wherever you are. Some EPO networks are national, and then the circles run coast to coast, but the rule does not change with the size of the network. Nationwide in network is not nationwide out of network. There is no out of network.
POS. The same Florida circles as an HMO, with a door out of them: everything outside the circles is blue, not hatched, because care outside the network is paid at the out-of-network rate instead of refused. Your primary doctor still refers you to a specialist, same as an HMO.
PPO, the gold standard of health care. This one is a national network. Every green circle is a city where the plan has doctors and hospitals in network, paid at its best rate, and there are circles in every part of the country. Everything between them is blue: out of network, and still covered, at a worse rate. No hatching anywhere on the map, and no referral to get to any of it. The POS has a door out too, but usually through your primary doctor first; the PPO is the one where you just go. That is the reason I try to get every client approved into one.
Every plan sits on one of four networks. Press HMO, EPO, POS or PPO and the map draws how far it pays. The PPO is the one I aim for.
04 · Why this part is a person
Somebody has to hold every market open at once.
Most private carriers don't sell online, and HealthCare.gov shows the exchange alone. With me you answer once, the same answers run through every market, and you hear which door is shut.
Insurance is complicated. Your half is the simple part.
03 · What happens next
Four steps. None of them costs you anything.
Plenty of people decide on the call and we enroll right then, but nobody's pushed before they're sure. Your premium goes to the carrier, on a date you pick. No contract between you and me.
STEP 01
A short call
State, age, who else needs covering and a little health history. I work out which markets actually fit.
STEP 02
You get the sheet
Real numbers: premium, deductible, out-of-pocket max and whether your doctors are in network. Including the option that pays me nothing, if that's the one.
STEP 03
You decide, then we enroll
Decide on the call, or take a week and talk to your spouse. When you're ready I handle the application, the health questions and the paperwork. You pick the start date, up to 60 days out, and the first premium is due then rather than today.
STEP 04
The part most brokers skip
Claims, ID cards, a surgery that needs pre-authorization, a rate change next year. It's where you find out whether somebody picks up.
04 · Start here
Four questions for you. Then I go and do the work.
Four answers give me enough to build a real comparison, usually back to you the same day.
Question 1 of 4
Who needs covering?
Everyone who'd be on the policy.
How many dependents?
Everyone who'd be on the policy besides you. A spouse and children both count.
How many employees?
Everyone you'd be covering, yourself included. A rough count is fine.
Roughly how old are you?
Age is one of the few things that moves the price in every market.
What's the main problem?
Be honest here: it changes which market I look at first.
Where do I send it?
I'll call or text first. No mailing list, no drip campaign.
You're all set.
Want to go through it together?
Pick a time that works for you and I'll have your answers when we talk.
Nothing here binds coverage. Your actual quote is personalized and confirmed by a licensed agent.
05 · Questions
The questions I get asked every week.
What does this cost me?
Nothing. Not the call, not the comparison, not the enrollment. The carrier compensates me when someone enrolls, and that's already priced into the premium whether you use an agent or not, so going direct doesn't lower it by a dollar. It just means nobody reads the fine print with you.
Am I locked into anything?
No. You and I never sign anything: no fee agreement, no exclusivity, and you don't owe me an explanation if you go elsewhere. The policy runs month to month rather than on a term, so you can cancel it with no penalty.
The catch is on the way back in, not the way out. Leave an underwritten plan and you answer the health questions again at whatever health you're in by then. Leave a Marketplace plan and you're generally waiting for open enrollment to get back on one.
Will you push me toward a specific plan?
No. A fair share of my calls end with me telling somebody to stay on their employer plan or their Marketplace plan, which pays me nothing at all. If what you've got is already the right answer, I'll say so.
Are you licensed in my state?
I'm licensed in thirty-one states, named on the map above rather than left as a number. I also have partnerships throughout the country, so if yours is grey I can almost always get you to someone who can help.
What happens after I enroll?
You keep my number. Claims questions, ID cards, a pre-authorization, a rate change at renewal. That's the job, and it's the part my longest clients talk about.
What's the real difference between private and Marketplace plans?
Private plans can weigh your health when they set your price and decide whether to accept you. Marketplace plans can't look at it at all, and price you on household income instead.
Neither is "better". They're built for different people, which is what the side-by-side sheet is for.
Do I have to be healthy to qualify?
There are options for just about everyone. Taking medication is not the same as being unhealthy: blood pressure, cholesterol, something for anxiety that's been working for years are all ordinary and commonly approved.
The harder approvals are what I specialize in, and through my partnerships I can help people with just about any health history. A more complicated history usually just means the benefits get adjusted to fit, with a rating, an exclusion, or a plan built for that situation. I read the underwriting first and tell you where you'll land before you fill anything in.
I missed open enrollment. Am I stuck?
You're absolutely not stuck. Plans are available all year long, even off the public market: underwritten coverage doesn't wait for a date on the calendar. And a qualifying life event (losing coverage, moving, marriage, a new baby) opens a special enrollment window on the Marketplace on top of that.
Can you cover my employees?
Yes, and for small teams there's usually more than one structure worth looking at. Bring your headcount and your budget and we'll work backwards.
What do you do with my details?
I use them to get in touch with you about coverage, and that's the whole of it. I'm a one-man operation, so there's nobody here to hand your number to. No call center, no lead buyers, no hundred calls in an afternoon. If you'd rather I left you alone, just say so. Reply STOP to any text.
How fast will you get back to me?
Usually the same day, often within a couple of hours during the week. If it's urgent, call or text rather than filling in the form. My phone is the fastest route to me.
Have a question I haven't listed?
Bring it. We'll go through it in the same twenty minutes.
Photo slot B · preview only
The claim that most needs a picture
"The software I run this on is my own" is the single least believable sentence on this page, and it happens to be true. A photograph of the screen with your own system on it does more for that paragraph than another hundred words underneath it.
- File
- img/shot-build.jpg
- Shape
- 16:9 landscape · 1920 × 1080 or larger
- Shot
- Over the shoulder or from the side, screen lit, your own client system on it. The screen should be legible enough to look real and not legible enough to read a client's name.
- Careful
- No real client data on any screen in frame. Use a test record, or blur it afterwards. This one picture could undo the whole privacy page.
- Light
- Dim room, screen as the main source. It has to sit on the dark section without a bright white wall fighting it.
Photo slot C · preview only
A face at the point of asking
Everything below this is the ask: call, text, book, send it over. The nearest photograph of you is at the very top of a very long page, which by here is a different visit. A second portrait down here is worth more than a first one up there.
- File
- img/shot-portrait.jpg
- Shape
- 4:5 portrait · 1200 × 1500 or larger
- Shot
- Head and shoulders, straight to camera, warm rather than corporate. Different clothes and a different setting from the hero, or it reads as the same photo twice.
- Light
- Soft and frontal. This is the friendly one, so nothing dramatic.
- Background
- Plain and uncluttered. The hero already has a busy backdrop and the two should not compete.
07 · Talk to me
Twenty minutes now, or another year of guessing.
Worst case, you find out you were already on the right plan and you can stop wondering.