

SimplyInsured (YC W13) Wants To Help Take The Pain Out Of Health Insurance - swohns
http://techcrunch.com/2013/02/27/y-combinator-backed-simplyinsured-wants-to-help-small-businesses-take-the-pain-out-of-health-insurance/

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dangero
I badly need something like this right now. As I understand it, brokers rule
this segment. This would essentially be an online broker. My current broker
sends me pdf brochures on request which I think is a pretty bad experience, so
this would be a welcomed change for me. On the other hand, sometimes I also
like to have a single point of contact. If my broker had access to using this
platform, that would be an ideal scenario. It could allow me to research and
compare at my leisure, but have a strong contact point when I need it.

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vivekajayshah
Hi! I'm Vivek - founder of SimplyInsured.

We can be both your broker, software, and strong point of contact. We act as
an "extended HR" for our customers - any issues they have with bills,
insurance companies, or doctors - we help them navigate.

My contact info is in my profile - feel free to reach me, and I will get your
company set up.

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codenerdz
The title of the article actually mentions "Small Businesses". I went there
thinking it would help consumers somehow.

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netvarun
They helped set up the insurance for us (Semantics3) and I fully recommend
them! Here is the direct link to their site: <https://www.simplyinsured.com/>

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nawitus
This is slightly offtopic, but (in the typical case) does the employer or the
employee pay the health insurance? I guess this depends a lot on the
workplace, but I wonder how this factors into the incomes reported by
Americans. For example, if someone's income is $60k per year, the real income
would be $52k with an expensive $700/month insurance.

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ams6110
It just varies. Some employers don't provide insurance. Some provide a very
small subsidy, some cover a lot more. Some will offer pre-tax witholding to
pay for your policy but not contribute anything. It's one of those things you
have to look at when you compare compensation packages.

I've worked at places where the salary probably sounded really great to an
outsider but there were no benefits; this is not that uncommon in small tech
companies from what I've seen. I've also worked where the salary was more in
the middle or lower end of what you might expect but there were large
contributions to insurance and retirement plans and generous amounts of paid
time off.

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chintan
Great app!

We faced the same problem a year ago finding insurance for our startup. One
major pain point was that everyone just made us sign up and connected to a
insurance agent who sent us a bunch of official looking PDF docs. I had to sit
and do my research to understand the plans. During that process I landed on
this NYTimes article
<http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/28/health/28patient.html?_r=0>

None of the agents sent me a High deductible plan. Then when I asked them, the
"researched" and sent me back more PDFs with high deductible plan, which we
eventually enrolled.

There are so many options in this space - so I would like you to "educate" me
before asking me to give you my contact details.

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mipapage
"NewCo is going to take the pain out of OldCo and their industry"

Making the decisions easier is one thing, changing the industry is another. I
wish them luck with the latter.

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RougeFemme
I'm not in the market for this service, but I love the idea of an online
broker. I used to work for a mid-size non-profit. I worked in IT, not HR, but
I was one of the "randomly selected" non-HR employees selected to help find a
new insurance plan. I only recently recovered from the nightmare of drowning
in emails and paper ( _not_ necessarily pdfs).

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josephkern
How will you be different than bswift.com?

As a user of bswift I was given a printed booklet specific to my company and
was presented with the easiest web page enrollment and benifit summary I've
ever seen.

Will you be a competitor to apps like bswift? What are your plans for
differentiation (if any)?

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bwb
So needed! Been talking to them and seeing about some quotes, great stuff is
coming to health care over the next 4 years!

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perry5000
Great job team. Any plans for an API in the future?

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bunkat
Not available in WA :(

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rorrr
Your interface fails on so many levels

1) Your front page essentially contains one button "Get free quotes", which
takes you to another page with a form. Why not display that form on the front
page? One less click = better conversions.

2) Why do I need to enter

    
    
        A) company name 
        B) my email
        C) employee names (what if I have 50?)
    

Quotes DO NOT depend on that information.

3) The phrase "get quotes" is a major turn off in my mind. It reminds me of
thousands of health insurance websites that give you quotes after endless form
fill outs and spam your email. Why can't you phrase it in a human way? "Find
plans", "enter your information", etc.

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kevinskii
"Your interface fails on so many levels"

Might be better worded as: "Here is some feedback. I hope it helps."

~~~
dcurtis2
Why? If you can't take the heat, stay out of the kitchen!

HN is for brutally honest feedback, not some sugar coated sissy politically
correct worded observations that is useless to the creators of the
site/software/service.

~~~
siddhant
"Here is some feedback" isn't sugar coated sissy politically correct worded
observation. It's just a bit more polite.

~~~
dcurtis2
Shit is Shit. Even if "polite"ly labelled as waste, or residue matter, or even
cake.

~~~
siddhant
Yes. The guy was giving shit, when instead he should've been giving feedback.

