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What is a Health Insurance Agent?

A health insurance agent is a licensed insurance professional who helps businesses and (sometimes) consumers find, use, and manage coverage.

Health insurance agent overview

Health insurance agents, who you may also see referred to as “health insurance brokers”, are licensed professionals who are supposed to be well-versed in all things related to health insurance. Most health insurance agents help businesses and (sometimes) consumers secure coverage each year.

Health insurance agents do not provide or administer health insurance policies themselves. Instead, they have relationships with the insurance companies and provide advice about which coverage is best for their clients.

An "agent of record" (AOR) is the health insurance agent you designate with your health insurance company to represent you and help you manage your insurance policy. Each policy you purchase has its own agent of record.

Insurance companies pay agents to help service policyholders (like you). You don’t pay additional money if you have an agent. In fact, if you don’t assign an agent of record, you’re actually leaving free service on the table. (Most people don’t realize this, but you’re actually paying for an agent via your insurance premium whether you use one or not.) To hammer the point, whether someone buys coverage directly from an insurance company or through an agent, the rates will be the same.

Health insurance agents must be licensed in your state and have agreements with insurance companies (often called appointments) to sell health insurance policies. Agents must also be registered with the federal government to assist you with healthcare.gov (the Marketplace) and premium subsidies. Many states require several hours of continuing education throughout the year in order to maintain a health insurance license.

The best health insurance agents are insurance company-agnostic. This means they can help you evaluate the pros and cons of different health insurance companies and their networks. (It also means they should be unbiased and have your best interests in mind; though this is not always true.)

While most health insurance agents prefer to work with businesses, here are some of the ways a health insurance agent can help you as a consumer:

  • Save you time searching for, enrolling in, and renewing your coverage.
  • Advocate for you with the insurance company.
  • Help you understand your coverage details.
  • Assist you with life events.

LegUp Health

There are a ton of agents out there, and if you've ever worked with any of them, chances are you've had a poor experience. Here's what we do to provide you with a better experience:

We exclusively focus on consumers

We are focused on helping consumers and families (not businesses) navigate health insurance. This focus allows us to build our service and software from the ground up with this in mind. Most existing agents offer individual health insurance services "on the side" or "as a favor" to consumers and instead prioritize employer clients and group health insurance.

We prioritize customer service over sales

We don’t hire salespeople and we don’t allow selling. We offer free phone, email, chat, and text support, even if you're not a client yet. Our goal is to help you feel confident about your health insurance decisions, whatever they may be. Most agents are there when you need to "find" health insurance, but they're not so helpful when you need to "manage" it or "use" it. LegUp Health is there for you year-round.

We do not pay commissions

Most agents are paid based on "sales commission". This is why you often feel hustled and uncomfortable when you talk them. Rather than employing commissioned insurance agents, we hire salaried "coaches" who prioritize customer service over sales. All LegUp Health team members are salaried and receive no health insurance commissions.

We represent all insurance companies

We represent all individual health insurance companies in Utah. This allows us to focus on helping you find the best coverage at the best price for you without worrying about what's in it for us.

We invest in proprietary technology

We are not just a health insurance agency. We are also a software company. Our software offering is already more robust than what's out there currently from most agents, and we're just getting started.

We hire top talent

Most customer service representatives can't answer your questions when you call them. When you talk to someone at LegUp Health, we guarantee you they are knowledge, well-educated, reliable, and kind. Our team members represent the top U.S. colleges and graduate schools. Yale, MIT, Duke, BYU, and UNC are a few of the schools our current and past team members have attended. Also, our talent advantage will lead to unpredictable (in a good way) innovation over the long term.

Sound good? Then, put us to the test!

How LegUp Health compares to most health insurance agents.

 

LegUp Health

Most agents

Exclusive focus on individual health insurance
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Non-commissioned team members
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Excellent customer service, year-round
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Represents all insurance companies
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Technology-enabled
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