Technology Start-Ups Provide Consumers with Alternatives to HealthCare.gov for "Obamacare" Pricing In 60 Seconds
West Palm Beach, FL (PRWEB) December 05, 2013 -- FreeObamacareGuide.com is pleased to announce the launch of the Obamacare Price Quote Tool. This free widget can be placed on any website and instantly provides consumers with valuable pricing data on health plans within their home state. Additionally, it also provides data that reflects the cost before and after the application of a subsidy. The widget is created utilizing data that is compiled from publicly available resources and compared to current policy pricing trends. For the consumer, the end result is a price estimation tool that has considerable accuracy and quickly helps a person determine their options.
Brad Hayes, spokesman for FreeObamacareGuide.com, explained the genesis of the tool and what their hopes are for it moving forward.
"We have had great concern over whether or not individuals who are going out and trying to price health insurance, either through HealthCare.gov and or through some of the independent brokers, were experiencing some sticker shock moments. If you do not understand how the subsidies work and how it ultimately brings the price of health insurance down, it is entirely possible that you may see a plan listed at $350 a month and walk away for good without factoring in the subsidy you are due. That sticker shock experience is incredibly damaging and completely undermines what HHS and this administration is trying to accomplish. We had a woman email us stating that her family of five tried pricing out insurance and they received estimates of $1,800 a month or more. We called her and we ran the numbers, accounted for their income and calculated the subsidies, they had many options at less than $400 a month. The woman started to get choked up on the phone once she understood that health insurance can now be a reality for her family. I can't put into words how life changing that is for so many Americans. By creating a solution (the widget) that will let a consumer know, for example, that a policy they thought would cost $350 a month will actually only cost $135 a month or less after the subsidy is applied, is in our opinion incredibly valuable if not critical information, especially considering the recent struggles of HealthCare.gov and the looming enrollment deadline. We will continue to improve and expand the functionality of the widget, but the version that is live right now will help people understand what some of their options are and will give them the ability to obtain as much granular pricing data as possible from a number of sources aside from HealthCare.gov."
Hayes also stated that the front facing pricing on the widget is an average of all available policies from a very large number of insurance companies. Instead of just displaying the very lowest rate bronze level plans, the company is compiling an average that includes bronze, silver and gold plans. The benefit of presenting the information this way is that it is going to provide estimates that include some of the best silver and gold level policies available.
If a consumer using the tool decides that they want to explore all available pricing and are having difficulty connecting to HealthCare.gov, the widget has a link within it that will send them to a contact page, which then connects to a network of health insurance providers who are able to process ACA subsidized policies. Brad Hayes did mention that Verticalize.net has been in communication with HHS and are currently in discussions regarding how they can work with HHS direct to bring even more resources and information to consumers.
FreeObamacareGuide.com is working exclusively with Verticalize.net, a company with proprietary advertising technology specifically designed around the healthcare industry with a focus on the Affordable Care Act. The company works with insurance providers, brokers and other companies within the industry to provide as large a pool of policy and pricing information as possible. According to Brad Hayes, Verticalize.net reaches more ACA eligible consumers within the 18 to 34 demographic than any one single company. On October 1st the company had more than 1 million unique visitors across their network and consistently have more overall exposure and organic presence than any other company. Due to the far reach of Verticalize.net, Hayes felt that they were a perfect fit for this partnership.
Any website publishers who are interested in placing the ObamaCare Price Quote Tool on their own website can obtain it by simply going to ObamacareTool.com or if they wish to obtain the version created for The Free Obamacare Guide they can do so by going to the following link. Obamacare Quote
FreeObamacareGuide.com is based out of West Palm Beach, Florida.
Brad Hayes, Free ObamaCare Guide, +1 (561) 247-0313, [email protected]
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