Insurance Brokers complain they are not recommended as Healthcare.gov alternative

[shotgunner]

NH insurance agents complain the government never mentions them as an alternative to the broken website for Obamacare.

Hometown brokers say they're cut out of Obamacare insurance market | New Hampshire Health

 

[pb4uski]

Vermont cut brokers out of the process entirely. My understanding is that while you can use a broker to buy a HI policy that the buyer would need to pay the broker directly in addition to the premium paid to the insurer. IOW, the premium does not include any provision for compensating the agent/broker for policies that they sell. As a result, most agents/brokers have given up on the individual HI market. My BIL was an agent and did a lot of health plans (including mine) and changed careers.

 

[tomz]

FL BCBS Direct Sales

After completing the application on health.gov, qualifying for a subsidy, and picking a Blue Cross/Blue Shield plan, the website still showed in progress. I have filled out everything you can fill out. This morning I went to the FL Blue site and they now have an option for you to create an account with them, log in to Healthcare.gov, and then return to the BCBS website. The subsidy data is passed from healthcare.gov to BCBS. I then filled out an application on the BCBS site, got a confirmation number, and was ready to pay for my first month's premium. Unfortunately, the credit card processing didn't work. I logged out and logged back in and my application is still there with the healthcare.gov pricing. I am an existing BCBS customer and bought my last policy through their website. In FL, with BCBS, it looks like you can purchase directly from BCBS as long as you have been qualified for the subsidy in healthcare.gov.

 

[brewer12345]

Lets all shed some tears for the insurance salesmen, shall we?