Consider not choosing Lifewise of Oregon for your insurance provider

I just left this review on a website that takes reviews/ratings for insurance companies.  However, I have had just too many bad experiences with Lifewise over the past three years, so I decided to post this here as well.  I would love to prevent others from wasting money and time on this insurance company.  To be fair, if you read this and you had an awesome experience with Lifewise, you are welcome to put that in the comments! The review is as follows:

This insurance company has the poorest overall communication skills and competency level that I have ever witnessed in a company.  My husband and I never had to make a claim, but getting on and off of their insurance plans was a nightmare.

The first time I tried to get on the plan was when I was getting married.  We called and asked if we could apply together even before we got married so that we could start our joint plan a few days after our wedding.  They told us we could and we should explain on the application.  We did exactly that, and a few weeks after our wedding we found that my husband was accepted but I wasn't because we weren't legally married.  Because they gave us the wrong information, I was without health insurance for a month.  They even made me refill an application and send it in again despite the error being theirs.

I was a TA during grad school, so I jumped onto a health insurance plan through that, but my husband stayed on Lifewise.  At the end of grad school, I wanted to get back on Lifewise until one of us got a job.  I sent in my application, and it took one and a half months for them to finally get around to approving me.  During that time, I didn't know if I had health insurance or not which made me anxious.  Additionally, part of the hold up was because they took so long to get to my application that they sent out a form to ask me if I had menstruated since I applied!  The nerve!  Additionally, when the customer service representative said she'd call us back by a certain day, she didn't.

By the time I had gotten on the plan, my husband got a job.  We called to ask what we'd need to do to get off the plan, and they said to just send in a request in writing.  We did this, and we got a letter back saying that they couldn't cancel the policy because we still owed $189 (they were billing my insurance for Aug. and Sept. in October since I wasn't approved until mid-Sept.).  We expected to see the money taken out of our bank account at the beginning of the month as usual, but it never was.  So we called, and they said that our policy HAD been canceled with the end date being 8/31/2011 (instead of 9/30/2011 as we asked) which is why our online account stopped allowing us to pay.  They made it sound like we should still pay the $189 though, so they gave us an address to mail in a check.  I mailed the check this morning, and then I got our Certificate of Health Coverage in the mail today ending 8/31.  Now I wish I hadn't mailed them another $189 since I guess it doesn't really matter if we were insured the first half of September.  SO FRUSTRATING.

Additionally, their rates rise incredibly quickly.  They started at $62/person for our plan three years ago, and they have raised the rates each year to about $90/person now.

Please consider getting a different insurance provider if at all possible!!!