On October 1st use an insurance professional when shopping in the Marketplace

Five days until we are supposed to be able to shop in the new Health Insurance Marketplace.  While some states running their own Marketplaces might be having some difficulties in being ready, the Feds who are running the South Carolina Marketplace insist that on October 1^st the doors of the online site will be open for business.

Stories are coming out now about what South Carolinians will find when they start shopping (here and here).  If you are still confused after reading about what will take place, you aren’t alone. 

I strongly urge individuals and small business owners not to try go through this process without guidance.  In every premium of every policy on the Marketplace is a commission to pay to insurance agents and brokers.  If you don’t use these insurance professionals to help you in the Marketplace, your premiums still are the same.  So if you are already paying for professional help, use it.

One private South Carolina insurance broker that has received much attention as a good source of assistance in the Marketplace is HealthAviator.com (here and here).   Not only can insurance agents and brokers provide you with professional assistance at no cost to you in shopping and enrolling in the Marketplace, they also can do what no other facilitator can do….actually recommend the best plan for you.  Only licensed insurance agents and brokers are legally allowed to make such a recommendation.

But not all insurance agents and brokers are alike.  What you want is an agent or broker who is licensed with all four insurance companies in the Marketplace.  There are agents and brokers who art tied to a specific insurance company so they might be biased in their recommendations (i.e. they won’t make a commission if they don’t recommend a policy from their own insurance company).

So get yourself some unbiased professional assistance by getting an insurance agent/broker who is licensed with all the Marketplace carriers.  HealthAviator.com is certainly one that is putting a lot of emphasis on working to properly enroll people in the Marketplace with professional recommendations.  But there are others out there also. 

Bottom line…get professional insurance agent/broker assistance and really make the Health Insurance Marketplace work for you.