Choosing Health Insurance

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY (the don’t waste my time, just tell me what to do section):

1. Go to https://www.healthcare.gov/marketplace-in-your-state/ and find the health insurance marketplace for your state.
2. Get really confused, and just get a sense of how many blinding options there are.
3. Regroup. Breathe. Go to https://healthinsuranceratings.ncqa.org/ and see that some health insurance companies in your state seem to be better than others. Write down the names of the good ones.
4. Look at this helpful chart to see if you are a low consumer of health care that should get something more on the bronze/silver end of the spectrum or a high consumer of health care that should get something on the gold/platinum end of the spectrum.
5. Go back to the health connector, and choose a plan that meets the following three criteria: A) it covers doctors/hospitals/prescriptions that you already know that you need/want, B) it seems like a good company based on the rating system above and whatever else you may know about insurance companies (tell me if you find a more reliable source of information on which insurance companies are good), C) it leans in the direction of coverage that you need based on how much of a consumer of health care you are.
6. Pray you never need whatever insurance you got and that it ends up being a “complete waste of money!”

For the first time in my life, I had to choose my own health insurance yesterday. As an analytical…