I've spent the last week reaching out to health insurance providers in Utah. My goal is to secure appointments with the top providers of:
Major medical health insurance (i.e. "real" traditional health insurance), and
Supplemental health insurance (e.g. dental, vision, accident, etc.).
What are appointments? Appointments are what allow health insurance brokers to distribute / sell health insurance policies on behalf of an insurance company. It ensures a broker receives commissions / payments on the policies she sells and services.
I've reached out to 4 insurance companies so far to become appointed. And guess what? All 4 of them have handled the appointment process with printable paper contracts.
To make matters worse, there is this complicated multi-level marketing (MLM) structure built into this paper-based system.
No online signup. Everything is done via email, phone, and paper. And there are sometimes third parties involved I've never met.
YIKES.
On one hand, this is incredibly frustrating and annoying.
On the other hand, it's another example how much opportunity there is for LegUp.
Once we're able to wade through this initial paperwork and "old school" system, LegUp will be in a position to add even more value to beta users.
But, I refuse to sign a contract I don't understand. It's time to start asking lots of questions...
I hope "they" don't get (too) annoyed.