Health Insurance

During Covered California's annual open enrollment, or within 60 days of a qualifying life event like losing job coverage, moving, marriage, or a birth. Miss both and you generally wait for the next open enrollment, so timing matters.

Many Californians qualify for subsidies through Covered California based on household income, and the amounts surprise people. We check your eligibility as part of quoting, at no cost to you.

HMOs cost less and keep care inside a network with referrals. PPOs cost more and let you see specialists and out-of-network providers more freely. The right answer depends on your doctors, prescriptions, and travel. We map your actual providers against each network before you pick.

The deductible is what you pay before the plan shares costs, copays are fixed per-visit amounts, and the out-of-pocket maximum is the ceiling on your annual spending, after which the plan pays covered care in full. The maximum is the number that protects you in a bad year.

No. Plan prices are set by regulation and are identical with or without a broker. The difference is having someone to call when a claim, bill, or enrollment problem appears.

Care outside the plan's network can cost far more, or not be covered at all on HMO plans.

These are usually separate policies or riders.

Medications off the plan's list may need exceptions or prior authorization.

Care that is not medically necessary falls outside the plan.

We are licensed in California, Texas, Pennsylvania and New York, and applications in Ohio, North Carolina and Michigan are with those states now. We do not quote a state before its license is issued. Start a quote and we will tell you where you stand before you spend time on it.

You answer a short set of questions, and a licensed broker at Menlo reads them, maps your operation to a class, and shops it with the carriers we are appointed with. There is no instant bind and no black box. You talk to a person before anything is quoted.