eHealthInsurance Launches Online Buyer’s Guide

In an effort to help consumers consider their health insurance options -- including the individual policies it offers through various carriers on its Web site -- during the upcoming open enrollment season, eHealthInsurance (Mountain View, Calif.) has introduced the Interactive Health Insurance Buyer's Guide, an online tool.

Sam Gibbs, consumer health insurance expert for eHealthInsurance, says that the company is working to make it easier for consumers to shop for health insurance. "Often times when people are faced with page after page of complex terminology, they feel overwhelmed and stop reading," Gibbs said in a press release. "We believe this guide provides a solid foundation for our customers so that they know what to focus on when they're ready to find the health insurance product that meets their needs."

The new guide, available at www.ehealthinsurance.com/guide or as a PDF, aims to help make sense of health insurance concepts that can often be difficult to understand, according to the press release. The guide takes consumers through a five step process, touching on topics such as the value and necessity of health insurance, terms and acronyms necessary to start researching and comparing plans, identifying the amount and type of coverage needed and bets practices when choosing a plan.

"A challenging economy, employer benefit reductions and healthcare reform are combining to make this open enrollment season potentially more challenging or confusing for consumers," Gibbs explained in the release. "The individual health insurance market can be an attractive, cost-effective, alternative for anyone whose employer benefits have been cut or reduced, as well as for the unemployed and self-employed that have to fend for themselves. If they are new to buying their own coverage, our new guide will help get them started."