How to Choose Health Insurance in Delaware

If you are employed full-time in Delaware, you typically have the option to get health insurance as a benefit of your employment. If you are not employed full-time, or if your employer does not offer health insurance, you can still get health insurance by shopping on your own. When seeking out your own health insurance, you can choose any insurance company in Delaware, which means that you must determine which company is the best for you and your family.

Instructions

• 1

  Submit quote requests on sites such as eHealthInsurance and Intelliquote (see Resources). Such sites give you multiple quotes at once. You also can visit local insurance agents in your area of Delaware for quotes. Some Delaware insurance companies include Blue Cross Blue Shield of Delaware, Aetna Health and Health Insurance Associates.

• 2

  Eliminate any quotes that are above your budget. Only consider the quotes for health insurance that have a monthly rate that you can afford to pay. Insurance rates often change, so look closely at the quotes that you are left with to see how often you can expect the rates to change, such as every six months or when you reach a certain age. If you have some quotes that are near your budget and that will increase regularly, you may want to eliminate them as well, since they will exceed your budget after the increases.

• 3

  Review what is covered for the quotes that you have left. Not all insurance policies cover the same things. For instance, you may need chiropractic care to be covered but not maternity coverage. Try to identify quotes that have just the coverage that you need because you do not want to be paying extra each month for coverage that you will never use.

• 4

  Check the out-of-pocket expenses for the quotes that remain. Important expenses to note are the copay amounts, the deductible amounts and the limits. You will see a maximum out-of-pocket amount per year, which is the most you will have to pay on your own, and a lifetime benefit limit, which is the maximum amount the insurance company will pay on your bills. Copay amounts is what you pay when you visit the doctor or hospital. The deductible amount is how much you must pay in health care bills before the insurance starts covering the rest. Also, check for service limits, such as only being allowed 12 visits to a chiropractor each year.

• 5

  Call the Delaware Insurance Commissioner's Office at 800-282-8611 once you have narrowed down to the final health insurance companies that you are considering. You can ask about the complaint record of each company and confirm that each company is licensed to sell insurance in Delaware. This can help you decide which company to go with. You also can view health insurance company rankings for Delaware on the Consumer Reports website (see Resources).