Free Health Insurance Quotes and Other Resources
There is no such thing as free health insurance, but free health insurance quotes are still a step in the right direction. Health insurance exchanges and online referral services aren’t just about increasing competition; they also help insurance companies create a more efficient method to reach potential customers. This reduces the need for more expensive and traditional advertising methods as well as commission-based insurance agents, allowing a greater percentage of premiums to go toward paying out health benefits.
Health Insurance Premiums, Benefits, Revenues, & Profits
This statistic surprises many people, but on average, health insurance companies pay out 99 cents worth of health benefits for every dollar in premiums they collect. Most people don’t appreciate the revenue that insurance companies are able to generate by investing premiums before they are paid out. A typical health insurance company might pay out 99% of its premiums in health benefits, but use only 60-70% of its total revenues toward these benefits. On average, 30-35% of these revenues are eaten up by salaries, legal expenses, advertising, and additional overhead, leaving 3% of revenues for profit.
How Free Health Insurance Quotes Lead to Better Insurance
Another piece of information that most people don’t appreciate is the fact that commission-based insurance agents cost an insurance company considerably more than advertising expenditures. Indeed, auto insurance companies like Progressive and Geico, which have moved away from commission-based agents, usually spend the most money on advertising but also frequently have lower premiums.
Free health insurance quotes help reduce the costs of both advertising and sales commissions, but these online quotes certainly don’t eliminate them. More than likely, you’ll still need to talk to a health insurance agent, also known as a health insurance broker, who will help you choose the best policy. In fact, some states even mandate these brokers to create more transparency for consumers in exactly what type of health insurance they’re purchasing. That said, free health insurance quotes allow companies to reduce commission rates. When health insurance agents have to deal with potential clients face-to-face or clients who cold-call an insurance office, they can reportedly make a commission of up to 15% of the cost of the policy. Needless to say, these commissions create higher premiums and/or inferior benefits.
The Myth of Employer-Based, Free Health Insurance
Few people actually consider work-related health benefits cost-free, but as the current health care debate has illuminated, free health insurance is not only a myth, but employer-based insurance costs a lot more than people realize. Health insurance premiums have risen 300%, despite the fact that when adjusting for inflation, wages have actually fallen. That’s not hard to swallow, but not hard to understand when you consider that, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation’s 2009 Employer Benefits Survey, the average family health insurance plan now costs more than $13,000, and employers pick up 73% of this cost on average. Worse yet, there are news reports that some businesses are dropping health insurance coverage without telling employees.
How to Shop for Free Health Insurance Quotes
All you need to do to receive a free health insurance quote is to fill out our quick health insurance form. We’ll do the hard work by finding the available health insurance companies in your state. Unfortunately, some states have more competition than others when it comes to health insurance. Some have only two or three companies for the entire state, while others have a dozen or more. Of course, this is all the more reason why it’s critically important to maximize the competition that does exist. By using our service, these companies will know that you’re also going to be contacted by competitors. Plus, you can review different insurance policies from the comfort of your own home, giving you as much leverage as possible, a rare commodity when dealing with the health insurance industry.
