This is the third post in a series on Health Insurance Basics. Open enrollment begins in less than a week, and many people will be picking a new health insurance plan for 2017. One of the most important things to understand is Networks. Network: There are many types of networks: data networks, computer networks, neural networks, and insurance networks. Insurance networks are becoming more important every year. One impact of the ACA (affordable care act) is that insurance

Open enrollment starts next week! Are you ready? Do you need to care? If you buy your own health insurance, then it’s an important time to decide what you are going to do for coverage in 2017. If you get your health insurance through your employer, then you can pretty much ignore it – you have your own company specific open enrollment period (if you don’t know when that is, please contact your HR department). For those of us who need to make Health Care choices during ope

This is the second post in a series on Health Insurance Basics. Since open enrollment starts on November 1, we are taking a look at the Washington HealthPlanFinder, otherwise known as the Exchange. Exchange: There are many definitions of ‘exchange’, but when it comes to health insurance, we are talking about ‘a store or shop specializing in merchandise usually of a particular type’ (Merriman-Webster). In particular, for Washington residents it’s the Washington HealthPlanFin

Amidst all of the craziness of life, you may not have noticed that the end of the year is approaching and many people need to figure out what they are going to do about health insurance in 2017. Open Enrollment starts on November 1. In Washington state, 50% of people are covered by an Employer group health insurance policy. The other 50% is covered by Medicare, Medicaid, Individual coverage, or choose to go without coverage (see KFF.org) If you are one of the folks who has