When gathering health insurance quotes on or offline, there are two ways to apply for health insurance. Traditionally, applicants were asked to complete a paper insurance application form. Ordinarily this followed a meeting with an insurance agent who then handed the form over to the applicant for completion. Today, online searches for a health insurance quote are becoming increasingly more common, and the option exists to complete an online insurance application form. There are advantages and disadvantages to each method of application.

The disadvantages to filling out a paper application form relate largely to inaccuracies from applicant interpretation without sufficient direction and also from poor or illegible handwriting. Since paper forms are not equipped with drop down menus as with computerized fill-in forms, insurance agents are left to decipher as best they can from the applicant's longhand. This presents hazards in deciphering critical information from the correct mailing address to the correct age of the applicant. Sloppily completed forms also leave room for error in terms of not following directions properly, leading to requests for revisions and adding time to the approval and processing of the application. Applicants are also given little if any prompting and direction when filling out a paper form, having to rely on their recollection of information presented during the meeting with the insurance agent and such direction as the form instructions may offer. Most online application forms provide detailed instructions for each section of the application; complete with little help boxes that allow the applicant to request more information about any part of the application that is unclear. Some also offer live chat with specialists for guidance.

The advantages of gathering health insurance quotes online and then immediately proceeding to fill out the online application are several. For starters, the application form can sometimes be auto populated from the data entered during the process of gathering the health insurance quote, saving the applicant time and reducing inaccuracies. Next, the processing time is greatly reduced as submitting the application information online cuts out the time it takes to wait for the application to arrive at the insurance office by mail and then get routed to the appropriate agent for review. It also saves the cost of postage.

For fastest processing time and the fewest number of requests for revisions due to inaccuracies, it is often best to consider completing a health insurance application online if the option is offered. Health insurance is not a benefit an applicant should ever be without, and submitting an application accurately and quickly online can cut processing time in half, allowing the applicant to obtain health care coverage with the least amount of extra worry, time, and expense.