From Blunt Force Trauma:
Health Insurance for the Self-Employed. As newly self-employed, getting my insurance in order is at the top of my list -- particularly health insurance. [Blunt Force Trauma]
As Terry notes, I used ehealthinsurance.com when I had to find a more affordable alternative to COBRA coverage. I liked being able to see at a glance a variety of different plans, with different deductibles, different types of coverage, etc. I ended up purchasing a Blue Cross Blue Shield major medical policy for myself and my family, at about 1/3 of what PPO coverage through COBRA was costing us.
The downside to buying online, at least from ehealthinsurance.com, is that it's not really an online, automated process. You can complete the application form online, but ultimately you still have to sign and send back hard copy forms. And while I'm not sure how much this had to do with buying through ehealthinsurance.com, it took Blue Cross Blue Shield of Georgia forever to process the paperwork and get to us some sort of official notification that our coverage was active -- I later determined that our coverage was active for nearly a full month before we had any proof of it, during which time we had to go ahead and pony up for another monthly COBRA payment to ensure that we didn't end up without any coverage at all. In all, it was about two months from the time I submitted the online application until I had confirmation that we were covered under the new policy, and another couple of weeks before I had hard-copy proof in my hands.
I have a deep-seated prejudice in favor of using online resources to shop for things like this myself, so that I'm able to investigate a variety of options without having someone trying to sway my opinion in person or over the phone. In retrospect, however, I'd probably have been better off calling a local insurance agent and working through them, once I'd done my homework online -- which seems to be the problem with a lot of online ventures: they're great for window shopping, but not so hot when it comes to actually doing business.
3:41:06 PM 
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