PickHealthInsurance.com
Web and SaaS
insurance comparison
SHOW HN2011
232points
99comments
#25of 1,097 in 2011
Top 3%of 2011 by points
How HN took it
DebatedReal support and real criticism
22 positive, 26 neutral or asking, 4 mixed, 18 critical, out of 70 comments about the project. Thread score -0.01.
Idea: 9 for, 2 againstExecution: 1 for, 10 againstDesign: 9 for, 1 againstPricing: 2 for, 4 againstDocs: 1 for, 0 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Clean, fast interface
From 3 comments
Considering I'm currently without health insurance, this is extremely helpful. Love how simple the interface is and how it gives you an easy to understand list of providers.…
rglover on HNLooks great, Clean UI and fast. Give option to compare plans side by side.
gdhillon on HNI really like it. I had to buy health insurance not too long ago, and I used one of the incumbent online services. The experience wasn't all that bad, but your site beats them in…
runako on HN
Plain-language explanations of terms
From 2 comments
I love the explanation of terms. Highly useful. It also highlights the near complete lack of correlation between how much a plan costs and how much benefits you get.
ora600 on HNGreat site, I especially like the explanations for the different terms. How did you get all the insurance rates and terms, just from the companies' sites? When I tried evaluating…
bartman on HN
Easier than existing comparison sites
From 2 comments
Great job, much easier than ehealthisurance.com when I used it a couple years ago.
savrajsingh on HNVery nice. I just went through the process of picking a health insurance plan using ehealthinsurance.com, and it was a bit of a pain. The one thing that would have made things a…
danielparks on HN
Objections
Displayed rates are inaccurate versus carrier quotes
From 3 comments
The rates your app returned were vastly different than running the same rate on numerous carrier websites. Your site showed rates that were sometimes less than half what the…
randomguy33 on HNIt gives me an inaccurate rate and just sends me to ehealthinsurance.com where they ask for just a tiny bit more info (ages of all enrollees) and gives me a different, more…
patja on HNEveryone seems to comment on how great the UI looks, but it means nothing ultimately if the data is inaccurate.
Hisoka on HN
Rates are misleading because final price needs full application
From 1 comment
This is very pretty and I'm sure it's to some extent useful. However, I also find it misleading. As someone who has been through the process of buying private insurance before:…
tptacek on HN
Sorting by price and deductible is broken
From 4 comments
Looks like your price sorting is by string and not integer so $1,491 (most expensive) then $199 (least expensive) were the top two results after sorting.
parfe on HNSorting by price sorts alphabetically, not numerically. I put in some details from when I was living in the US and I'm shocked—I can't find a plan that isn't 50% copay on brand…
Robin_Message on HNVery nice! Your sorting by deductible doesn't work correctly.
chadkeck on HNNit: the sort by premium should be a numeric sort so that 1,000 is greater than 999.
pbreit on HN
Missing major carriers such as BCBS
From 2 comments
Your site lists the same companies as every other site out there - the problem is, it's missing so many other companies out there. It's basically a list of the same four or five…
ComputerGuru on HNI don't see BCBS in my results, and I have a BCBS plan.
orblivion on HN
Requests
Side-by-side plan comparison
From 3 comments
This looks fantastic. Seriously, really good. I'd love to be able to specify the number of children I'd be putting on my plan (maybe not on that first page, but on an internal…
charliepark on HNsweet! serendipitously just what i need this week picking insurance and all the information more quickly and better organized than sites like ehealthinsurance.com et al. wants: -…
natbro on HNLooks great, Clean UI and fast. Give option to compare plans side by side.
gdhillon on HN
Gender and dependents inputs
From 2 comments
Cool site, needs some visual work but the idea is there. I have the same question as other people - how are you pulling this data? One thing you definitely need on the front page…
MatthewB on HNThis looks fantastic. Seriously, really good. I'd love to be able to specify the number of children I'd be putting on my plan (maybe not on that first page, but on an internal…
charliepark on HN
Sort by out-of-pocket maximum or total annual cost
From 2 comments
Very nice. I just went through the process of picking a health insurance plan using ehealthinsurance.com, and it was a bit of a pain. The one thing that would have made things a…
danielparks on HNVery cool. I wish I had this when shopping for insurance a year ago. A "total annual cost" column would be helpful for making sense of the deductible/premium/co-pay relationship.…
fludlight on HN
Deductible filter or slider
From 2 comments
Great idea! But you need at a minimum to add one more question: desired deductible. I ended up with 79 plans and that is a bit much to sort through. Perhaps you could have a…
rmason on HNI think it needs sliders to adjust the deductible, coinsurance, etc.
duncanj on HN
Questions
Where does the rate data come from?
From 3 comments
Very interesting. Where is your data coming from?
dmillar on HNGreat site, I especially like the explanations for the different terms. How did you get all the insurance rates and terms, just from the companies' sites? When I tried evaluating…
bartman on HNCool site, needs some visual work but the idea is there. I have the same question as other people - how are you pulling this data? One thing you definitely need on the front page…
MatthewB on HN
How are rates calculated?
From 1 comment
The rates your app returned were vastly different than running the same rate on numerous carrier websites. Your site showed rates that were sometimes less than half what the…
randomguy33 on HN
Alternatives named
ehealthinsurance.com
From 3 comments
Very nice. I just went through the process of picking a health insurance plan using ehealthinsurance.com, and it was a bit of a pain. The one thing that would have made things a…
danielparks on HNIt gives me an inaccurate rate and just sends me to ehealthinsurance.com where they ask for just a tiny bit more info (ages of all enrollees) and gives me a different, more…
patja on HNGreat job, much easier than ehealthisurance.com when I used it a couple years ago.
savrajsingh on HN
Massachusetts Health Connector
From 1 comment
Very nice. It's EONS better than Massachusetts' health insurance website (https://www.mahealthconnector.org/). Idea: Perhaps add columns so you can sort plans by co-pay for…
dgallagher on HN
HealthCare.gov finder
From 1 comment
HHS operates a really good site to find public and private insurance options: http://finder.healthcare.gov/
golfstrom on HN
Prodigy Health Insurance
From 1 comment
Well, for one, we're Parishes in Louisiana, not Counties, but that's mostly a pedantic thing. There's another site that I've seen that does something similar:…
lleger on HN