Do they claim bait and switch when they get a solicitation from a credit card company advertising 2.9% rates? Or mortgage loans at 2.9%? Or car loans?
How about those nothing down, no payment until 2015 on cheap furniture?
People like Rick Unger must either be ignorant or the have an agenda.
As the premium prices published by any Internet health insurance exchange cannot possibly deliver the entire pricing picture, due to the fact that no insurance company listing a policy on a web-based exchange can give a ‘pre-Obamacare’ quote until all the details of an applicant’s health situation is fully known to the issuer, I viewed—and continue to view—the comparison as wholly unreasonable. To underscore the point, and to highlight the substance of my objection to Avik’s argument, I relayed some of the comments and criticisms offered up by past customers shopping at eHealthInsurance.com who experienced higher rate quotes once they went through the application process.Forbes
Heads up Ricky. The same phenomena would occur if you applied direct to the carrier or went through an agent . . . unless you were in perfect health.
Rates quoted for health insurance, car insurance, life insurance, car loans, mortgage loans, etc are for PREFERRED customers.
If you aren't preferred, you won't get the quoted rate.
Why is this so difficult to understand?
I would say your analysis is equally wholly unreasonable.
But I do applaud you for finally coming out of the Obamacare ether and figuring out that "Washington, we have a problem".
eHealthInsurance.com—along with smaller websites providing similar services—is, in virtually all respects, an existing healthcare exchange and has operated as such for long before the Affordable Care Act introduced the concept of the health insurance exchange into the vernacular of national health care policy.
Well duh!
Did you think the Travelocity and Priceline examples used by the DC crowd was unique and there are no other industries that have shopper sites?
Ever heard of Amazon? Bankrate? Ebay?
Last year, approximately 20 million people visited eHealthInsurance.com with roughly 10 million of these visitors falling into the all-important 18 to 34 year old demographic. These younger buyers are critical to the ability of insurance companies to drive premium charges lower as these ‘young immortals’ tend to be the healthiest participants in the insurance pool. Thus, the more young people included in the pool to balance the older and sicker participants, the lower premium prices should go.
However, it is the young immortals who are also the most likely to skip the requirements of the ACA mandate and chose to pay a penalty rather than buy insurance, thereby posing a threat to some of the key objectives of Obamacare.
So, when a company like eHealth is already established in the business of operating a health insurance exchange—not to mention having an established track record when it comes to attracting the critical buyers in the younger demographic—one is left to wonder why the ACA would not have created a situation where private, web-based exchanges could function as an additional option for uninsured Americans seeking to connect with insurance companies offering qualified health plans in accordance with the law.
Duh!
Wonder how many more folks like you are out there that have completely missed the internet revolution.
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