I don't see BCBS in my results, and I have a BCBS plan.
Show HN: PickHealthInsurance.com
61–70 of 100 posts
Re: Show HN: PickHealthInsurance.com
#62Very cool. I wish I had this when shopping for insurance a year ago. A "total annual cost" column would be helpful for making sense of the deductible/premium/co-pay relationship. Think of it as the "Price+Shipping+Tax" on shopping websites. Ask the user how much he expects his doctors to charge him ("Annual Medical Bill") in the next twelve months, then calculate how much he would pay to the doctors and to the insura…
I've toyed with adding some elaborate calculators. Last time I went through this exercise I built a rube-goldberg spreadsheet that let me plug in doctor's visits, major illness, deductible, premium, etc. and spat out a yearly number.
It was just too complicated, though. Most people don't even understand what "coinsurance" is. I might add some pretty calculators later if the site gets some traffic.
Re: Show HN: PickHealthInsurance.com
#63Is there a theme or framework that you used to make this site? It has the exact same UI as https://www.bitcoinica.com/
Twitter Bootstrap - highly recommended!
Re: Show HN: PickHealthInsurance.com
#64The rates your app returned were vastly different than running the same rate on numerous carrier websites. Your site showed rates that were sometimes less than half what the carrier site reported. How do you generate your rates? Your math seems dangerously wrong in a lot of places, especially when requesting family rates. (This is verifiable by running a rate on this website, and then going to one of the carriers web…
My family rates assume one 10 year old child and spouses that are the same age. Could that be the problem? I tried to add disclaimers to that effect. Maybe I need to make them more prominent. Certainly the rates match up quite well during my testing.
Re: Show HN: PickHealthInsurance.com
#65Under "Plan Types" you've used a checkbox when the actual behavior is a radio button.
Plan Types HMO (15) PPO (79)
What was the reasoning behind that? Are there other options that aren't mutually exclusive that sometimes show up dynamically? Was it a visual choice?
The checkboxes underneath act like checkboxes.
If it's a visual choice, why not use some actual style? http://jqueryui.com/themeroller/ (see "buttons")
Re: Show HN: PickHealthInsurance.com
#66I like what you've done with it so far!! I love your launch page UI, it's very clear and obvious what I am supposed to do. Good luck!
Re: Show HN: PickHealthInsurance.com
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've been in your shoes and I empathize. In fact, I was in your shoes just a few days ago when I applied for insurance. The rates here are "representative" and I tried to add disclaimers in the obvious places. The rates are similar to what you see if you check with your state's insurance commissioner. Most states require the health insurance companies to publicly disclose those rates. Of course, they can still mess w…
Are you sure Washington State is that simple? I don't live there and only spent a few moments researching, but I don't see that WA has guaranteed issue with continuous coverage. It does seem to have guaranteed renewal , but that locks you into one insurer, doesn't it?
Here we have something called the Standard Health Questionnaire (SHQ), which they make you fill out when applying for insurance. But there are a bunch of exceptions at the top which make it possible to avoid submitting the SHQ. Running out of COBRA is one of those exceptions.
Re: Show HN: PickHealthInsurance.com
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
To offer a different perspective... I'm younger than you, and was shopping for individual insurance. In my case, the hardest part was trying to compare plans from the companies in my area. All of them have slightly different ways of making it profitable for them. One could have Rx copays, but a special deductible for ER and urgent care visits. Another company may have only Rx reimbursement and office visit copays. So…
I'm 34 now, but my last tussle with private insurance happened when I was 28. Did you fill out complete applications for Blue Cross and United? Were you presented with a sign-on-the-dotted-line contract with a rate on it? Were you applying solely for yourself? Again, if you're in your 20s, healthy, male, and alone, you are very easy to insure, because you cost epsilon for Blue Cross to insure.
Yeah, I'm currently insured by United and was previously insured by Blue Cross.
I think your point is correct that the site is a (now cliched?) "leaky abstraction." But the good news is that it works for at least some segment of the market (those like myself).
I was 25 when I did the Blue Cross app and 27 when I did United.
Re: Show HN: PickHealthInsurance.com
#69This is very pretty and I'm sure it's to some extent useful. However, I also find it misleading. As someone who has been through the process of buying private insurance before: there are a number of sites like this (though none of them as elegant and spare). All of them will give you comparative rate charts. But those rates don't mean anything. After you select a provider, you have to fill out their application, whic…
I've been in your shoes and I empathize. In fact, I was in your shoes just a few days ago when I applied for insurance. The rates here are "representative" and I tried to add disclaimers in the obvious places. The rates are similar to what you see if you check with your state's insurance commissioner. Most states require the health insurance companies to publicly disclose those rates. Of course, they can still mess w…
Washington is actually pretty good relative to any other state I've seen. If you avoid SHQ through previous coverage, especially post-Obama changes (getting rid of lifetime limits), buying health insurance IS fairly straightforward.
Even with the SHQ, it seems deterministic.
Re: Show HN: PickHealthInsurance.com
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think it needs sliders to adjust the deductible, coinsurance, etc.
More like kayak? I thought about adding the sliders, but it feels like the filtering is sufficient.
well, when I sort on deductible, I have to mentally categorize all of the prices based on the other features even though I know I am not going to accept, say, 30% coinsurance. If I could max the deductible at x and the coinsurance at y then I could sort by price.