Illinois Health Insurance Quote
The Internet has made it easy to get free Illinois health insurance quotes. Now in a matter of seconds you can obtain more quotes than you could have in a full days worth of insurance shopping 10 years ago! Are all IL health quotes the same? Does it matter where you get your Illinois health quote from?
Let’s explore some truths about getting Illinois health insurance quotes as well as some common fallacies. The first big truth is this: You will get the same price on health insurance from the same Illinois health insurance company regardless of whom you purchase the insurance from.
In other words, it is a common misconception that one can get a cheaper health insurance rate if they choose to work directly with the health insurance company (say UniCare, BCBS of IL, Golden Rule, etc.) rather than choosing to work with a health insurance agent. So let’s say that I am looking for an Illinois family health insurance plan and I decide that I want to get a BCBS quote, a Humana Quote, a UniCare quote, and a Golden Rule United Healthcare quote (a pretty good representation of all of the top Illinois health insurers). So in order to get my quotes I contact licensed Illinois insurance agent Joe Smith for some quotes, I contact some of the insurance companies directly for a quote or two, and then I also contact another agent, Jane Doe, down the street as well.
Theoretically, if I get a Blue Cross of Illinois quote from Joe Smith, Jane Doe, and also directly from Blue Cross of Illinois directly then the quotes should all have the same rate. However, sometimes the quotes will be different giving the appearance of one agent or company being able to “cut a special deal”. Why is this? If the insurance rates are set by the insurance company and regulated by the State of Illinois then how can the Illinois quotes show up with slightly different rates (or maybe even drastically different in some instances)?
Easy, the quotes will be different if they are based on different input information! Illinois health insurance rates are based on factors like home zip code, date(s) of birth, smoking/non-smoking status, effective date of the policy (date that the coverage begins), and other factors. This means that there are a few different variables that can go into generating the correct Illinois health insurance quote so be sure and double check that all of the input information into the different quotes is the same – if the input information is the same then the quotes will be the same!
Watch out for the unethical process called “lowballing” that some Illinois health insurance agents will practice. “Lowballing” is when an agent purposefully puts more favorable input information into the quote for the consumer (making the client younger, changing the client from a smoker to a non-smoker). “Lowballing” will make the agent’s quotes appear cheaper than any other similar quotes from the same company that the client sees. This appears very attractive at first but when the application is submitted then the applicant will of course get the real rate that is based on the correct input information.
Illinois health insurance quotes and rates are set by the insurance companies and regulated by the Illinois Department of Insurance. The rate will be the same regardless of where you purchase insurance. Take advantage of the price transparency of the Internet and compare rates from all of the top Illinois health insurance companies by requesting free Illinois health insurance quotes now