Before you talk to any insurance agent
Most insurance conversations go badly for a boring reason: the person answering the questions does not have the answers in front of them. Two calls become five, the paperwork comes back for a correction, and the decision ends up being made in the last five minutes.
This is what to gather first. It works with any agent, not just with us — and if you bring it, a conversation that usually takes three calls usually takes one.
The ten things to have in front of you
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Your current insurance card, and the date the coverage started
Medicare card, employer plan card, Marketplace plan card — whichever applies. The start date matters as much as the card.
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Your full legal name and date of birth, spelled as your government documents spell them
A nickname or a middle initial in the wrong place is the single most common reason an application comes back.
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Your ZIP code and your county
What is available to you is decided by where you live, not where you work. County, not just city — they do not always agree.
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A written list of your prescriptions: name, dose, how often
Photograph the bottles. Include the ones you take occasionally; those are the ones people forget and then get surprised by.
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The doctors and clinics you want to keep, and the city each one is in
Write down the ones that are not negotiable for you. An agent cannot protect a relationship you did not mention.
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Anything already scheduled in the next twelve months
A surgery, a specialist referral, a course of treatment, a pregnancy. Timing changes what makes sense.
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Who else is on your tax return, and your household income for the year
Only needed if you are looking at Marketplace coverage. An estimate is fine; a wild guess is not.
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What you can comfortably pay each month — and separately, what a bad year could cost you
Two different numbers, and both of them matter. Deciding on the monthly figure alone is how people end up underinsured.
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Any coverage you or a spouse still have through an employer, a union or a retirement plan
Including who to call about it. Dropping something you did not have to drop is hard to undo.
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Your questions, written down — including the ones you feel silly asking
They are almost never silly, and they are always the ones that get forgotten when the call runs long.
What you should not hand over on a first call
- Your Social Security number in full.
- Your bank account, debit card or credit card details.
- Your Medicare number, to anyone who contacted you first and whose name you did not already know.
- A signature on anything you have not read all the way through.
- Access to your Medicare or Marketplace account.
A licensed agent does need some of this eventually, to submit an application you have agreed to. None of it is needed to answer your questions, and nobody should be asking for it before then. If a call feels like it is going that way, end it — you can always call back on a number you looked up yourself.
Five questions worth asking any agent
- Are you licensed in my state, and what is your National Producer Number?
- Which companies are you appointed with, and which ones are you not?
- How are you paid, and does what I choose change what you are paid?
- When something changes next year, who do I call — you, or a call center?
- Will you put in writing what we discussed and what I decided?
A straight answer to all five is the thing to look for. Ours: Jaime Hernandez Triana is licensed in Washington, Texas and Nevada, his NPN is in the footer of this page, and you will be talking to him rather than to a queue.
Want it as a sheet you can fill in?
Everything above is on this page for anyone to read. The printable version is the same list laid out with room to write, so you can fill it in at the kitchen table and have it in front of you on the call. Tell us where to send you to it and it appears below, ready to print.
None of the above is advice about a plan, and nothing on this page describes or compares coverage. It is a list of things to have ready. For help with your own situation, talk to a licensed agent — ours is Jaime, and a review costs nothing.
Rather just talk it through?
A review with Jaime is free and there is no obligation. Phone or video, English or Spanish.