Purchase Health Insurance From The Internet????

[karihager1982]

What is the name of your state? Michigan

I was just curious is anyone here has ever purchased a health insurance plan from the internet?

I am trying to get some health insurance for my disabled father who is now on Social Security Disability. He cannot get MediCARE until 2006 and his monthly income from SSDI is too high for mediCAID.

So right now, I am looking at several plans that can help get him by until he can get his MediCARE.

Is purchasing plans online safe? Or is there other ways to go about doing this? I'm clueless when it comes to this stuff.

[cbg]

As someone who has many, many years working with health insurance, the best I can offer you is an, "it depends".

If you are talking about going to Kaiser's or BCBS's or UHC's or any other reputable company's website and buying on-line (assuming that's okay in your state) there's nothing wrong with that.

If you're talking about those websites that offer you "free quotes", that may or may not be risky. There, you're not only dealing with the insurance carrier but with a broker as well. While some of the brokers involved with internet sites are perfectly fine, reputable individuals, there are some of the other kind out there too, and if you aren't familiar with them, it's easy to make a mistake.

I would feel far more comfortable with going to a local broker that you can check up on with your local Chamber of Commerce or BBB, and buying health insurance that way.

[karihager1982]

Thanks for the reply. I think right now, any type of insurance is out of the question.

My father has type II Diabetes, and no health insurance company will cover him.

He *might* qualify for MediCAID but the "spindown" would be $1,200 dollars for him. The lady said it wouldn't be worth it unless he could afford to foot most of the bill (which he can't).

The ONLY insurance company that will cover my father is Blue Cross Blue Shield, BUT that is only insurance for hospitals, and emergency type situations. No office visits, or prescriptions. PLUS my dad would have to wait 6 months for them to treat ANY complications from his diabetes.

My dad cannot get MediCARE until March 2006, which is about 16 months away. I don't know what to do now. I guess he'll have to pay out of pocket for everything until he is covered. Guess I'll start looking into Discount Prescription Drug cards.

Thanks again for the replies. It was worth a shot.

- Kari

[cbg]

Unless the cost is totally prohibitive, you might want to consider picking up the BCBS policy. Sure, he'll have to pick up most of the costs for the next six months, but if you don't buy the policy, he'll have to do that anyway, and at least you'd know that after that, there'd be coverage for the big things.