Illustration of a woman analyzing a giant insurance form with a giant magnifying glass.

Making Sense of Insurance

You may have heard this expression before: “The best time to buy insurance is before you need it.”

The odd thing about insurance is that you buy it hoping you’ll never need it. It can be expensive and challenging to understand, but if the worst-case scenario actually happens, you’ll be happy to have it.

First, what is insurance? 

In short, it’s protection against financial loss. If your car or home is damaged, if your property is stolen, or if you experience an injury or illness that requires a lot of care, all of that costs money — lots of money. Few of us have that kind of money sitting around waiting to use in case of emergencies. That’s what insurance is for. You pay — a predictable, manageable amount of money — every month, quarter or year to the insurance company you choose. And in return, that company’s insurance policy protects your home, car, health, or even life it’s intended to cover with the money needed to pay for the repair, replacement, treatment, or other service required.

What Types of Insurance Are There?

Truly, there are insurance policies for almost anything you own or that has value. That includes these most common types:

  • Automobile insurance
  • Health insurance
  • Homeowner insurance
  • Renter’s insurance
  • Life insurance

There are many more types of insurance policies, but a young person like you is likely to encounter these five types most often. To learn more about each one, visit our page “Types of Insurance.” 

How to Get Insurance

Few of us understand all the ins and outs of insurance, and that’s okay! Fortunately, there are professionals available who do, and they can answer your questions and make finding the right insurance policies for you a lot easier. 

Nevada Health Link

Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, which was established to help ensure every American has access to health insurance coverage, regardless of cost, individual states now offer residents a way to qualify for affordable insurance through their state. Nevada Health Link is the marketplace for our state.

By law, if your employer does not offer you health insurance coverage, you can qualify for an ACA subsidy that can make one of the policies available through Nevada Health Link affordable for you.

Independent Insurance Brokers

An insurance broker is an independent professional who works on behalf of customers to find the best plan from among several different insurance companies. Think of them as personal insurance shoppers. They have no affiliation with any of the companies, so they can talk to you about your exact needs and budget and then find the plans and insurers that seem best suited to you.

Insurance Company Representative 

This type of agent works directly for a particular insurance company — some of the companies you’ve probably heard of are Allstate, Nationwide, State Farm, United, and New York Life — and will answer the phone when you call to ask about insurance. They can pull a quote together, which is basically an estimated price based on the policy they create for you. If you don’t know of a broker, you might decide to call two or three insurance companies directly and then compare quotes to select the best policy.

Next: Types of Insurance