Health IQ Life Insurance Review
Shopping around for life insurance takes time, including if you happen to be in the market for coverage for several people and in search of options for the best family life insurance. Using an online broker like Health IQ can help reduce the time and effort of insurance shopping.
Among a number of life insurance online brokers that emphasize your overall health, Health IQ calling card is a special emphasis on leveraging your healthiness for discounts on coverage, including on other services after you buy a policy.
Read on to learn more about Health IQ's innovative approach to insurance brokering. And if you're new to buying life insurance, read our life insurance for beginners for a primer on understanding and buying this protection.
Best at emphasizing health in comparing life insurance companies
Health IQ stands out not only by allowing potential policyholders to compare offerings from multiple life insurance providers, which other online brokers allow. It adds an emphasis on good health — and promises hefty discounts to those who show they are notably healthy, and so a lower risk to insurers than many other policyholders.
The company doesn’t offer its own policies but rather shops you around to a number of insurance providers, including its preferred insurers (but not limited to those, Health IQ says).
Together, Health IQ claims, its approach ensures that applicants in good health qualify for the best life insurance rates and the most flexible policy features.
If you think you can pass Health IQ's various health assessments, it's probably worthwhile to see how much it can save you. Here are the pros and cons of the company.
Health IQ life insurance pros and cons
- Promises comprehensive discounts for healthy and health-conscious individuals
- Ongoing rewards for healthy living
- The website isn't easy to navigate
- Obtaining price quotes takes some work
- Offers only term life insurance
Pros explained
Great discounts on insurance for health-conscious individuals
Health IQ all but declares its specialty as selling life insurance to people who are vigorous and without serious medical issues. It promises rate discounts of up to 41% compared with what you might pay through a broker or company that’s less thorough about ensuring that applicants’ overall health is recognized and rewarded. That commitment, it says, can result in savings of thousands of dollars in premiums over the term of your policy.
Ongoing rewards for healthy living
Your Health IQ account, created when you begin your assessment, lets you track your healthy habits and accrue reward points for passing more health quizzes. Your points translate into discounts on partnered fitness products and discounts at stores such as CVS and JC Penney.
Cons explained
The website isn’t easy to navigate
To find Health IQ's life insurance information, you have to search for it directly using a search engine. At the time of writing, the company's homepage only talks about its Medicare brokerage services without any links to its life insurance information.
You also have to specifically find links from search engines for information about term life and guaranteed issue coverage. What's more, these pages don't connect to one another. These barriers in the user experience mean that, in addition to good health, you may need some technological savvy to apply for rate discounts.
Obtaining price quotes takes some work
Like some other sites that use pre-screening based on health questions, Health IQ requires you to take its assessment upfront. This involves answering a variety of questions about topics ranging from diet and nutrition to fitness and working out. These steps allow you to demonstrate your relative healthiness.
But where some sites will serve up a quote for coverage after completing such a questionnaire, Health IQ requires further steps before approval at a certain rate. Those include having a representative contact you and, most likely, also submitting to a medical exam, at least if you’re seeking a death benefit that runs into six or seven figures.
Offers only term life insurance
Health IQ only brokers term life insurance and guaranteed issue life insurance —the latter being coverage that requires no medical exam, but typically delivers a death benefit of no more than $25,000. That’s not a major drawback, since these insurance types — term, especially— are the best choices for most people, anyway. But if you’re among the minority for whom permanent insurance such as whole life makes financial sense, you'll need to look elsewhere.
Health IQ life insurance plans
As a broker, Health IQ doesn't offer its own plans. Instead it brokers life insurance of the following types.
Term life insurance
Term life insurance policies are made for those seeking coverage for a specific time frame, typically between 10 and 30 years. Almost all Health IQ clients choose term life insurance.
Guaranteed issue life insurance
This insurance type is suited to individuals with significant health concerns or those who wish to bypass the conventional life insurance medical exam. However, guaranteed issue life insurance generally caps out at a benefit of only $25,000. Prospective policyholders who might have trouble qualifying for term insurance might choose a guaranteed issue plan to provide for funeral costs and other so-called final expenses.
A guaranteed issue policy is far faster and easier to obtain from Health IQ than a term insurance one. The broker can usually approve coverage in under 48 hours, and guarantees coverage for policyholders between 50 and 85. And, as is common for this type of coverage, no medical exam is required.
Health IQ life insurance pricing
Since it works with so many insurers, it’s difficult to provide reliable price estimates for life insurance bought through Health IQ. The company aims to provide competitive rates from a variety of insurance providers.
When most insurance companies consider your health, they look at a generic medical evaluation and your family history to determine how healthy you might remain over the course of your policy. Health IQ provides insurance companies with a more robust prediction of your long-term health through testing your wellness knowledge and physical activity.
Health IQ life insurance financial stability
Health IQ started by providing discounts on health insurance for healthy seniors and has now expanded into brokering life and auto insurance. It's backed by venture capital firms such as Andreesen Horowitz, Charles River Ventures and Foundation Capital. The stability of the companies that write the policies sold by Health IQ varies, of course, as with the offerings of any broker.
Health IQ life insurance accessibility
Health IQ guides you only through the buying process, if you in fact purchase a policy from them. Once you buy a policy, you'll deal only with the insurance company for the policy the broker has sold you.
Availability
Health IQ is available in all states, but some of their insurance providers may have their own limitations.
Contact information
An insurance agent arranged by Health IQ will call prospective customers after they apply for a quote. If you prefer to take a more proactive approach, you can call (800) 549-1664. Additionally, if you have questions you can send an email to ceo@healthiq.com.
User experience
As mentioned above, Health IQ's website could use some updating. And because you have to validate your health knowledge and fitness capabilities, expect it to take some weeks to get a policy.
Once you are covered, you'll deal with your insurance company directly. However, when you take your health quiz, you create an ongoing account with Health IQ. You can use that account to log activities and earn rewards for your continued healthy habits.
Health IQ life insurance customer satisfaction
Health IQ generally earns high marks in online reviews, including those of site Trustpilot, which awards the broker a score of 4.9/5, based on reviews left by customers.
The broker isn't accredited by the Better Business Bureau (BBB), but receives a score of 3.72/5 stars from the agency —albeit from reviews that are mostly dated within a few weeks, raising concerns that some may have been coordinated.
With Health IQ, your healthy habits pay off, literally. Initial quotes become available after you complete one of Health IQ's approved quizzes. The idea is that if you score well, you probably pay attention to your health concerns and make healthy choices. People who do this are less likely, the logic goes, to acquire many of the deadliest lifestyle-related diseases. Hence, insurance companies are less likely to have to pay out a death benefit. Lower risk for them means more savings for you.
Once you've completed a quiz, your application will include self-evaluations of your lifestyle habits like exercise and diet. You'll also complete an at-home medical examination. The final task is to verify your lifestyle by completing an activity like running an eight-minute mile or cycling more than 50 miles. This information is used to gauge your eligibility for special discounts on life insurance. The healthier your habits, the better the rates you might secure.
While specific numbers can vary based on individual profiles, Health IQ discounts fall into three categories of credits: health literacy, active lifestyle and underwriting.
Health literacy credits, reflecting your understanding of practices that make you healthier, can earn you up to 8% off your premium. Active lifestyle credits, from exercise and healthy eating, come with as much as a 9% credit. Underwriting credits —as in the reductions offered by insurers who perceive you as a lower sik than the norm — can range up to 24%.
If you can qualify in full for every category of Health IQ discount, then, the reductions can total as much as 41%. Such discounts, the broker suggests, could deliver several thousand dollars in potential savings over the course of your policy.
How we evaluated Health IQ life insurance
Here are the factors we used to evaluate Health IQ and its life insurance offerings:
- Discounts offered: We examined the discounts Health IQ provides, particularly for those leading a healthy lifestyle, to determine the real-world value they offer to policyholders.
- User experience: Our evaluation considered the ease of the application process, website navigation and overall customer interactions with Health IQ's platform.
- Number of providers: We assessed Health IQ's partnerships and affiliations with life insurance providers.
- Plan offerings: We looked at the types of insurance plans Health IQ brokers to see what options prospective buyers have.
- Customer satisfaction: We gauged customer satisfaction levels by analyzing feedback, reviews and complaints, giving us insight into the company's service quality and reliability.
Summary of Money's Health IQ life insurance review
A number of online life insurance brokers emphasize health prescreening and quizzes. Health IQ stands out for extending its promised savings to ongoing discounts with retailers if you demonstrate a commitment to a continuing healthy lifestyle.
However, this broker is slower to yield a policy than the promised timing of some competitors, and its process is a little more involved – for example, you will likely still need to undergo a physical exam, at least for a policy with a six-figure death benefit.
Also, its website is below par for the field. While it provides a lot of information about how Health IQ helps you get a lower rate, the site might be confusing, even overwhelming, for someone unfamiliar with the difference, say, between term life insurance and permanent life insurance.
And like a number of competitors, it offers only term life insurance, along with modest guaranteed-issue policies.