Health insurance shouldn’t cause headaches

One of the biggest challenges freelancers face is figuring out what health plan to choose and how to navigate a mind-boggling insurance market. Acting as your own Human Resources advisor, you are left to grapple with the fine print and myriad choices on your own. Which plans are cost-effective? What plans will meet your needs? What’s a freelancer to do?

It’s hard without Human Resources

As health care consumers, we often lack the information to make informed choices: we don’t know when we might get sick, or how much it might cost. It’s hard to understand the difference between a copay, coinsurance, and a deductible, and what the ideal mix of each might be. There’s a big body of research out there about how hard it is to make informed choices in the health insurance market.

But if establishing an Exchange (PDF) (a regulated market of different plans where individuals can purchase health insurance) is central to national health reform, who will help consumers navigate it? Only one proposed bill (PDF) contemplates the idea of Navigators—groups or associations that would bring individuals together to help them enroll in plans through the Exchange.

Although the bill itself includes only a few lines, Navigators could play an invaluable role. They could:

• Reach out to hard-to-reach populations and bring them into the Exchange
• Vet plans for their members
• Assist with enrollment
• Advocate on behalf of the member when there’s a problem with claims or billing

Who should be helping us get health insurance?

There are already groups out there, like Freelancers Union or AARP, that serve this function for their members. When we surveyed independent workers in 2008, 76% preferred to get health insurance through a membership organization, more than through an employer or even the government.

Health reform will be stronger if there is a place for consumer advocates in health care delivery.