If you are purchasing health insurance an individual, such as a student, a self employed individual, or a self employed with a family, and you are not getting your insurance through a group plan at the place of your employment, then in this section you will learn on how to go about obtaining instant individual health insurance quote and about purchasing quality, inexpensive individual health insurance fast.

If you are really looking to compare instant individual health insurance plans on an personal (not through employment) basis, and you don't have time to wade through pages and pages of information that might have been reasonable in 2007 but is quite obsolete today, then pay attention.

By reading through this section, you will be able to go through the relevant insurance information right away, and will save yourself days and days of comparing health insurance plans, wading through the obsolete health information, and, finally, you will be able to instantly get a health insurance plan that will suit your needs best, based on the realities of the today's health insurance companies.

Even if you have an option to continue your employer's COBRA health insurance, or if you are offered health insurance through work, but you find your COBRA health options just too restrictive, or too expensive, you will find directions here on how to get more selection in low cost health insurances in the individual health insurance marketplace.

You will also find out right here how to take maximum advantage of the current federal government health insurance options for individuals which are quite new, and possibly very attractive.

The main message will be: Take advantage of this transition period 2010-2014 and beyond. Get the best possible coverage for you without spending a fortune, and take a good care of yourself and your family, or your small business. To accomplish this, we will first look at the pros and cons of individual health insurance (including self employed health insurance) versus a group insurance. Then we will quickly compare PPO and HMO types of individual health insurance plans. Finally, we will provide quick options for signing up with a health insurance, or, if ineligible for it, provide government and non-insurance alternatives. You will be able to get some help and avoid being charged an arm and a leg for healthcare.

Comparing group health insurance with the individual health insurance

We will first compare individual insurance with a group insurance that you might have access to if either:

• You or your spouse work for a company that offers it, or


• You are under 26 years old and one of your parents have group insurance at work.

Advantages of individual health insurance: Why choose individual vs group? Here are the main advantages:

• There are no waiting periods with individual insurance. With some group insurances, you may have to wait sometimes 3 months, other times as much as 6 to 12 months before the insurance kicks in. Frankly, health benefits are often used by companies just to keep their employees longer, by dangling the insurance benefits in front of them.


• You can find lower priced health insurances in the individual market.


• There is a wider variety of insurance companies to choose from.

Disadvantages compared with group insurance through employment: And here are the disadvantages of individual health insurance:

• Issuance of the individual health insurance is not guaranteed - the ins. company can reject your application due to the pre-existing condition, they can delay your acceptance, and they can sometimes even reject your application due to your age.


• You may need to provide information on your last physical exam, and disclose any pre-existing ailments, illnesses, and health conditions when you apply.


• Quite possibly, after the first expensive illness for whose treatment the individual insurance pays for, your premiums may become higher, they can even become unaffordable, or you may be denied further insurance.

Next, we will look into two types of individual health insurance, and suggest what type of person would be best suited for one or the other.

Types of individual health insurance

There are basically two types of individual health insurance in the US, a HMO type and a PPO type. The acronym HMO stands for Health Management Organization, and it is designed to curtail the cost of health care by carefully prescribing and selecting the allowed medical procedures given the disease or condition.

Let's look into the advantages and disadvantages of each. PPO stands for Prefered Provider Organization, which means that your insurance reimbursement will be higher if you choose an in-network provider. However, you will be reimbursed a smaller percentage of the procedure cost even for the out-of-network providers.

Advantages of an HMO plan vs. a PPO plan

• Low or zero deductible possible with a HMO plan.


• High deductible, in the thousands of dollars is available.


• A HMO plan may have relatively large selection of doctors in larger metropolitan areas.

Disadvantages of an HMO plan

• In most areas, especially outside large metropolitan areas, you will face highly restricted selection of doctors and hospitals, as well as dentists and other specialists.


• Not offered in some regions.


• Cost: ranges from $250+ a month for a student to as much as 400+ for a 50y/o with $0 deduct, $0 doctors visits.


• Unavailability of less expensive plans and more expensive plans.


• Your application can be rejected based on your health condition.

Advantages of a PPO plan

• Cost: You can find very inexpensive PPO plans, starting at $60/month for students, and $150/month for a 50 years old.


• Cost: You can find very expensive PPO plans, which will have low deductibles and low copays, and lesser restrictions on choice of doctors.


• Excellent availability of doctors and specialists in most areas.


• Can choose between going to a in-network provider or out-of-network provider and get reimbursed either way.

Disadvantages of a PPO plan

• By paying out less to out-of-network providers, you will for the most part be limited to the in-network doctors and hospitals. If you have a strong preference to visit a doctor you like, make sure that doctors is in the network before signing up.


• Low copay, low deductible PPO options are prohibitively expensive.


• Your application can be rejected based on the pre-existing condition.

How to apply for health insurance quickly (10 min max)?

You would be amazed at the sophistication of the signup processes of some online health insurance sites. While the sophistication is important for them to remove the prospects that are not seriously looking for insurance, it does make the process for people who are seriously looking, more daunting.

The fastest option for signing up with an individual health insurance plan is eHealthInsurance. We have compared it with other options such as BenePath and InsureMe and found the signup process with eHealthInsurance was the fastest, the most hassle-free and the least complicated. This is important if your time is money too.

It is no coincidence that, over the past decade or so, eHealthInsurance has signed on over 2 million individual, and family customers in the USA alone.

A direct link to eHealthInsurance signup is here: MyeHealthInsurance.info. You will be able to find links to other options in the section Buy Health Insurance Online.

Finally, if you were rejected by any insurance company that you tried to sign up through the MyeHealthInsurance.info link above, and the reason for rejection was the pre-existing condition, then you will now have a chance to sign up with the federal government sponsored pre-existing condition insurance plan. They will NOT reject your application.

To look into the government option, and some exciting new developments, check out the section Federal Health Insurance.

You may have to endure through a 6-month waiting period with the federal government option. In this case, an instant non insurance plan could help bridge the six month gap, and could even provide supplemental savings down the road, through supplemental dental health non insurance plan for instance.