What are some common mistakes that people make when buying health insurance?

Host: What are some common mistakes that people make when buying health insurance?

Bob Hurley: So, when you are buying a health insurance it's a very important decision that you are making and you want that health insurance to be there when you need it or if you need it and so when you go out shopping for a health insurance if you come across an agent that is trying to sell you a particular plan without showing you the entire market place of plans that are available in your specific area, I would say buyer beware, because when you are shopping for health insurance you should be able to see a broad spectrum of health insurance products available to you and you should typically be seeing these products available to you from leading names in health insurance and these are all names that we would all recognize whether they be Aetna or Humana or United Health or a Wellpoint Anthem which is typically, a Blue Cross organization. If you don't see some of those names being offered to you then I would say buyer beware, be careful of what you are buying. So again, I think the message there is anytime somebody is trying to share you only one product be very careful and I would do a tremendous amount of work to figure out what that one product is and why the other products that are available in the market are not being shown to you.

When you are shopping on the internet I think one of the most important things to do is go to that website, see what kind of products are available on that website. Again, look for the leading names, the leading brands. Obviously, sites that offer a broad spectrum of health insurance companies are more likely to be very reputable internet companies and the reason for that is in order to represent one of those leading companies you have to be scrutinized by that health insurance company quite closely. Then you have to be contracted with them and it's quite a process to do that and so if you are shopping on the internet you want to look for a website that offers you again, a broad selection of health insurance plans from the leading companies that we are all going to recognize.

The other thing you can do when it comes to shopping on the internet is pick up the phone and call the number that's on the home page of that site. The reason I say that is this probably happened more few years ago than it happens today but when you used to, a good test was always to call the number and see what kind of response you got when you called the number. If you are shopping on the internet, you land on a page, you think it looks right, you pick up the phone number and you call it and you get a voicemail. I would say buyer beware in that situation. You should be able to get a live person that answers that call obviously, during business hours and they can answer your questions is licensed to sell you health insurance, is licensed to talk to you about health insurance. You should ask that question, "Are you licensed to sell or to talk to me about buying a health insurance?

" Ask them that question and if they can't answer that question then I would say, buyer beware.

So again, a couple of things try to look for an agent that's going to represent many products that are available in your area. Then, number two, if you are shopping on the internet again, look for the brand names that are available, look for broad selection and then pick up the phone and dial the 800 number and see what kind of response you get.