Maryland - Small Biz Exch - Contact Broker!

[Yagents]

John, is Maryland finally "getting" it?

Maryland To Launch Healthcare Plan Web Portal For Small Businesses.

The Baltimore Sun (5/3, Cohn) "Picture of Health" blog reported that the Maryland Health Care Commission is "launching a new web portal to help small businesses compare healthcare plans." The Virtual Compare website will "allow side-by-side comparisons of benefits, premiums and out-of-pocket costs for various HMO and PPO plans." It will also offer "guidance about choosing insurance, federal tax credits and state subsidies available to small, low-wage companies (50 employees or less)." Although businesses will not be able to "apply for insurance on the site," they will be able to obtain "information on 600 brokers who have pre-registered" on the website.

 

[CHUMPS FROM OXFORD]

Of the 600 brokers, probably only 50 or so are the ones you want to deal with. I'm not crazy about it if they are put on equal footing.

But there are ways to combat that if it ever comes to your state.

 

[Crabcake Johnny]

I saw this come through on my news feeds yesterday and posted it: Maryland Insurance News | Insurance News and Resource Blog

Stuff like this, for me, is irrelevant since there's no way to get the word out to biz owners that the site exists.

 

[somarco]

I looked at a site from CO or UT a few months ago that included brokers. One of the worst sites I had seen. Totally confusing and of course no one would ever find it or if they did, would not know how to use it.

 

[dgoldenz]

I signed up as a broker on the site a while ago, haven't seen anything or received any updates on it since. The website seemed pretty good IMO, but of course businesses don't know anything about it.

 

[Crabcake Johnny]

And that's assuming small business owners are on the net in MD looking for rates. I'll assume that most simply go through their broker or carrier direct.

 

[Ann H]

Change you can believe in. You can't live with it. It won't function. But, hey, BELIEVE!

 

[Crabcake Johnny]

"Maryland group health insurance" gets 91 searches a month. Waste of time.

 

[ins.dave]

Pay a shake down fee to register ...? All hail free enterprise at it's finest.
More government is good government.