Home › A written proposal before you decide
Written and reviewed by Dick Tracy, licensed health insurance broker (NPN 20414610) · Published October 14, 2026
Quick answer Yes, and you should insist on it. Every quote I put together goes out to you in writing as a proposal package: the medical plan and the supplemental pieces together, the policy details spelled out, plus a short recap video so nothing depends on what either of us remembers from the call. You read it on your own time, on a real screen, with your glasses on. Nothing gets submitted while you are reading it. When you say go, you e-sign, underwriting takes three to five business days, and the effective date is usually about a week out. If anybody wants a yes on the phone before you have seen a single number on paper, that is your cue to slow down.
I'm Dick Tracy, an independent health insurance broker in Western New York, licensed in 25 states with 80+ carriers behind me. I came out of the healthcare side of this business, so there is no gag clause on me. I will give you the tips, the tricks, and the traps. Putting the proposal in writing is not a courtesy I save for people who ask nicely. It is just how I work, because a plan you cannot re-read is a plan you cannot actually check, and I would rather you check me.
It is not a screenshot of a quote engine. The package names the plan, the monthly premium, the deductible, and what actually happens when you walk into an office, a lab, or a pharmacy. It names the network and tells you how to verify your own doctors on it instead of taking my word for it. And it prices the supplemental layer right next to the medical plan, the accident, critical illness, gap protection and dental pieces, so you can see in one place what the medical plan absorbs and what it leaves on your kitchen table. Where more than one route genuinely fits your situation, the package prices more than one, so you are comparing real options against each other and not against nothing.
Then there is a short recap video. I record it walking through your package, out loud, in the order a human would read it. That video is the part people tell me they use most, because it is the piece you can hand to a spouse who missed the call, or play again three weeks later when the renewal notice shows up and you cannot remember why you picked what you picked.
Because almost nobody can hold a health plan in their head, and the people who think they can are usually the ones who get surprised. A plan is a stack of interacting numbers: premium, deductible, coinsurance, out of pocket maximum, formulary tier, network tier. On a phone call you can follow all of it for about ninety seconds. In writing you can follow it for as long as you need, and you can come back to it in March when something actually happens.
There is a second reason, and I will be blunt about it: a written proposal is a record. If I tell you a plan covers something and it does not, you have it in my own words, with my license number on the bottom of it. An agent who only ever tells you things out loud is an agent you cannot check. I educate, you decide, and you cannot decide on something you cannot re-read.
When the package lands, do not read it front to back like a novel. Go straight at these five, in this order:
1. The premium, and what is inside that number. Is the supplemental piece included in the figure you are looking at, or is it sitting next to it? Add it up yourself.
2. The deductible, and what counts toward it. Find the services that are copays from day one and the services that chip at the deductible first. That distinction is most of the difference between two plans that look alike.
3. Your doctors, by name. Not "is it a PPO." Take the two or three people you would hate to lose and verify them on that specific network.
4. Your prescriptions, by name. Check each one against that plan's formulary tier. A plan that is thirty dollars cheaper can cost you three hundred a month at the counter.
5. The effective date. Know the exact day coverage starts, and what you are and are not covered for between now and then.
Anything in there you cannot follow, circle it and ask me. If I cannot explain a line of my own proposal in plain English, that is my problem to fix, not yours to decode. And if you want a gut check from somewhere other than me, that is fine too. Read how to choose a broker in New York, or run the package past an AI second opinion. I have never lost a client to a second opinion.
People ask me for the plan materials right now, and sometimes I tell them it is too early. That is not me stalling. A proposal is only worth the paper it is on if the numbers in it are real, and rates and plan designs for a coming plan year are not final until the carriers file them and the state finishes its rate review. Group coverage also runs on a monthly cycle with a cutoff, so there are weeks where the honest answer is "I will send you the package, and here is the week it will actually mean something." In the meantime I will tell you exactly what to gather so that when the real numbers land you are not scrambling.
So this page is not for someone who wants to be enrolled on the spot with no paperwork, and it is not for someone who wants a number today whether or not it holds. If you want it fast and soft, there are plenty of people who will give you that. I would rather give it to you slow and true.
Nothing moves while you are reading. When you tell me to go, I start the application myself: I ask the questions and fill in the answers, then you e-sign. Underwriting takes three to five business days, sometimes with a five minute phone interview, and there is no blood work, because the carrier pulls the medical and pharmacy databases instead. Effective dates are usually about a week out. None of that is a surprise if the proposal is in your hand, which is the point.
A couple of years ago I took a household from $1,200 a month down to $379. They did not take my word for it on the call. They read the package, came back with three questions, and then signed. That is the way I want it to go every time, and it is also why the honest answers live in the package too: if the numbers show that a subsidized plan is genuinely the better deal for your income, the proposal says so, even though that answer does not pay me. For most of the people I talk to the better math is on the private side, a plan priced on you rather than on a pool, or for the right household in New York a merge into a pre-established ERISA group plan at group rates, which is federal law and a simple compliance step I walk you through. Sometimes it is a layered package instead of one plan, and sometimes you may not need a group plan at all. Either way you will see it side by side before you decide anything. Want a rough sense of your own numbers first? There is a free 2026 subsidy cliff calculator right here on the site.
Yes, and you should insist on it. Every quote I build goes out to you in writing as a proposal package: the plan details, the monthly premium, the deductible, the network, and the supplemental pieces priced right next to the medical plan, plus a short recap video so nothing depends on what either of us remembers from the call. There is a reason I work this way. KFF asked insured adults how well they follow their own coverage and 51% said at least one part of how their insurance works is at least somewhat difficult to understand. Nobody should be making a twelve month decision off a phone call and a good feeling.
Yes, though what you get is more than suggestions. It is the actual package: the plan or plans I am recommending, what each one costs per month, what the deductible does, what happens at an office visit, which supplemental pieces I would layer on and what those add, and the reasoning for each. If I am recommending one route over another for your situation, I say why in writing, where you can hold me to it. You can forward it to a spouse, a parent or your accountant and nothing about it changes.
Absolutely, and that is exactly the right instinct. I text you the proposal package with the policy details plus a short recap video so you can watch it again later, when you are at a real screen and not squinting at a phone in a parking lot. Everything we talked about is in it, the medical plan and the supplemental pieces together. Read it twice. Write your questions down. Then call me back.
I will send you something, but I will also tell you if the numbers are not real yet. Rates and plan designs for a coming plan year are not final until the carriers file them and the state finishes its review, and group coverage runs on a monthly cycle with a cutoff. If I hand you a price before it is a price, you will plan your year around a number that moves. So sometimes the honest answer is that I will send you the package and the week it will actually mean something, and in the meantime I will tell you what to gather.
You never have to decide on the call, and nothing is submitted while you are reading. When you tell me to go, I start the application myself, I ask the questions and fill in the answers, then you e-sign it. Underwriting runs three to five business days, sometimes with a five minute phone interview, and there is no blood work. Effective dates are usually about a week out, so a proposal is not a same day enrollment. If you need coverage in force today, I will tell you straight that I cannot do that.
Book twenty minutes and tell me what you have now and what you actually use. Then I send you the package: the plan details, the supplemental pieces priced next to them, and a short recap video that is yours to keep, forward and re-watch. You read it on your own time and call me with questions. No hard sell, ever. I educate, you decide.
Pick a slot below and it lands on both our calendars. No phone tag, no hard sell. I educate, you decide.