‘One-stop shop’ for health insurance
The site OSICompareHealthPlans.org is being provided by the
The insurance website does not replace the federal portal where consumers go to enroll for health plans -- healthcare.gov -- or the state site that can provide health insurance information and free counseling, bewellnm.com.
But OSI's search engine can provide more specific information in an easy-to-search format to compare all plans certified in
Once a consumer finds a suitable plan on the insurance site, they should record the plan identification number and can go onto healthcare.gov or contact the company or a broker to enroll.
"It's a never-before-offered one-stop shop," said
Widler added that the search engine has a drop-down box with all the physicians who are part of a plan network. So a consumer who wants to keep their doctor can be sure to find a plan where that individual or practice offers in-network billing.
"We see a lot of people confused with the provider they thought was in the plan but is not -- this takes the guesswork out of it," she added.
The portal was developed by the nonprofit Consumers' Checkbook organization and has been customized to specific states with plans and insurance companies. The site is running in
The Office of the Superintendent
One advantage is that just four companies sell plans through the Affordable Care Act's healthcare.gov portal, but more options are available for middle- and upper-income individuals who would not receive any federal assistance to pay monthly premiums. The OSI site includes all those plans as well.
For instance, a 40-year-old
The search engine also calculates the average out-of-pocket costs in a plan year for each option as well as a worst-case scenario for what medical costs might be in a year of bad health.
For a 60-year-old earning
But the selector also can steer users to plans that cover their specific prescription needs.
The tool also estimates the amount of federal assistance available to those earning less than about
Of the 50,000 or so customers who purchased insurance in the state through the exchange in 2017, more than half qualified for some federal cost-sharing assistance or for advanced tax credits to offset monthly premium payments.
"Most people who do shop on the exchange do qualify for financial assistance," said Ellsworth of Consumer's Checkbook. "You can find out about assistance without having to go into healthcare.gov. We know not all people are comfortable doing that."
Contact
On the web
Office of the Superintendent
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