Click Here to Skip The Advice and Get Fast Quotes   Expert Advice: How to Find and Buy The Right Health Insurance Bruce Judson, Founder Health Plans Today.us in The Wall Street Journal Bruce@HealthPlansToday.us 888-421-5088   If you are serious about finding the right, affordable health plan, this page is for you. The approach recomended here takes about 10 minutes, and to date we have helped over 600,000 people.  Step #1: Getting Started: Before you start, you may want to read this entire page so that you get a full overview of our widely followed, unbiased process. Step #2: Recognize that it's essential to shop around: In "The Insurance Maze: How You Can Save Money on Insurance--and Still Get the Coverage You Need," author Kimberly Langford (who is also a columnist for "Kiplinger's Personal Finance"), writes: "Shopping around can make a huge difference...."Why pay $8,000 when you get the exact same coverage for $2,500?" She notes: "A healthy 35-year old couple with a two year old child in California could pay anywhere from $2,544 per year for a policy with a $2,000 deductible up to more than $8,000 for a similar policy, and those price variations aren't based on any differences in the family's health; it's just the range in prices from company to company." Step #3: Learn to Compare Hidden Costs: As Langford notes: "The policy with the lowest premium may actually cost you the most."  Although it's not always simple, the best way to assess a health policy is to look at all of the variables, including deductibles, co-payments, coverage for annual  for office visits, physicals and emergency room visits, prescription coverage and hospital visits, and then estimate your total annual costs based on expected (and possible unexpected events). To help you make this comparison (and keep track of all the possble isues involved), we spent considerable time searching for the best comparison oriented worksheet available. We located a newly released, free two-page worksheet, titled Evaluating Health Insurance Choices WorkSheet by clicking here. This FREE, two page worksheet will downoad in Adobe PDF format. It represents an unbiased, joint effort by Georgetown University's Health Policy Institute and the Nation Endowment for Financial Education.  We recommend that you click here to instantly download a copy and print it out. Step #4: Work With Knowledgeable Insurance Agents: For a variety of reasons, many of us prefer not to work with "agents" who are interested in "selling" something to us. However, the best way to find out about certain insurance offerings that are right for you may only be through knowledgeable agents. And, as agents have been forced to compete with instant, online sales (discussed in Step #4 below), many have adopted a sales approach based on adding knowledge and better service as opposed to past "hard sell" tactics. We recommend that you submit one brief form that will lead multiple insurance agents located in your area to contact you within 48 hours, and often the same day. There are two advantages to this approach: First, it ensures that you have the opportunity to compare multiple quotes from different providers. Second, if you are skeptical about the advice you are receiving from any one agent you can repeat it to other agents and see what they think. You will benefit from the competition you will create among different agents for your business. Click Here for the agent quote request form that we recommend. Quote Financial, which powers this form, takes your privacy very seriously, and the company's privacy policy is described at the bottom of the form. The form takes less than a minute to complete! After you submit the Quote Financial form,  your brower will automatically take you to the quote site for eHealthinsurance, the nation's leading provider of instant online quotes and online insurance sales. To date, eHealthinsurance has insured over one million customers. Step #5: Compare Instant Online Quotes & Apply Online Click here to access instant online quotes through eHealthinsurance (if you chose not to follow Step #4). If you followed Step #4 and submitted the form, your browser should have taken you to the eHealthinsurance instant online quote page, where the Company accessess a databse of over 4,000 plans from 140 top providers across the nation. The number of providers available via eHealthinsurance largely depends on the state in which you live and the extent of competition in that specific state. It generally takes less than a minute to obtain initial quotes from eHealthinsurance. When you obtain quotes, you will also see on the right hand side of the page, the phone number at eHealthinsurance to talk with one of their licensed insurance agents, 800-977-8860.  These agents can immediately answer any questions you may have. If you find a policy at eHealthinsurance that interests you, it will be quoted at the best price available anywhere, and you can apply with no obligation to buy.  There are advantages and disadvantages to applying at once. The advantage is you start the process of obtaining coverage under the plan. The potential disadvantage is that if your state allows companies to turn you down, it's better not to risk a rejection that you then need to disclose to other potential insurers. The principal reason you might be rejected  for a plan is if you have a pre-existing medical condition. In The Insurance Maze, kimberly Langdon suggests that the best way to handle a situation of this type is to with one of eHealthinsurance's agents by phone, who will have experience on what types of conditions are likely to be of concern to specific companies.