5 Pitfalls Health Insurance Agents Help You Avoid

Getting it right the first time is crucial when it comes to choosing your health insurance plan - after all, any wrong choice is something you'll be stuck with for a full year unless you qualify for a special enrollment period.

​Having superior health insurance keeps on saving you money every time you see the doctor, buy prescription drugs, or have an ER or urgent care visit. It also gives you continual peace of mind even when you don't have to use it.

Ever consider using a health insurance agent to help you navigate the market and choose your ideal policy? Here are 5 pitfalls a good agent can help you avoid:

1. Wrong Choice Because of a Hurried Choice
When deadlines for choosing your next health insurance policy approach, it's easy to feel the pressure and buckle under it. This feeling usually causes you to act in haste and select less than your best plan because you felt you didn't have time to do the research necessary to know which plan was best.

Use a skilled, professional health insurance agent, and that problem evaporates. They will be able to move quickly yet carefully to guide you through the decision making process step by step based on what you tell them of your situation and your preferences. You will feel the pressure lift and won't fall into the "rush choice trap".

2. Got High-pressured by a Salesman
When you use an independent health insurance agent or broker, you don't have to worry about getting pressured into buying from a particular insurer just because that's the one the agent works for - because they don’t. Independent agents work for you; they are not tied to one company and are free to offer you the plan that best fits your needs.

They don't lose commission based on which plan you choose. And you don't pay anything extra on your premium or any extra fee for the fact you used an agent.

3. Too Many Out of Pocket Expenses
The last thing you want to do is to discover that your health plan is inadequate to fit your real medical needs. An experienced agent will walk you through all possible out of pocket expenses, such as deductibles, copays, and coinsurance, and set up realistic scenarios to test your likely actual expenditures under each option.

Did you know some health insurance plans have a zero deductible? And your coinsurance percentage varies from 40% to 10% on the scale, from bronze to platinum with "metal plans". Agents know how to get your out of pocket costs down to a minimum.

4. You Paid Far Too High a Premium
The opposite problem to #3 above would be to buy far more coverage than you need, hardly ever use it, and unnecessarily pay high premiums as a result. Insurance agents can help you avoid this pitfall as well. They can help you find the right balance.

5. Not Switching Policies
Another trap is to fail to update to a better policy each year as needed, or at least do the research to find out if last year's best choice is still in that category this year. When policy terms change and/or your situation changes, a switch may save you significantly.

One of the most positive results of using a top-tier health insurance agent, like those at Summerlin Benefits Consulting, is avoiding these 5 negative pitfalls.