About HerePup

Any time you're choosing or checking your coverage, not just at open enrollment: when you start a new job or weigh a job offer, after a life event such as marriage, a new baby or losing other coverage (which usually lets you change plans outside open enrollment), when a spouse's employer opens enrollment at a different time, or when you're budgeting for the year ahead.

Yes. HerePup is free to use while it's in early testing, and there's no account to create.

No. HerePup runs in your web browser, on your device. Your benefit guides and claims are read there and never uploaded, and HerePup has no servers that receive them. The site only counts anonymous visits and a few steps, with no cookies. You can erase everything with "Delete all my data" in the app.

Each plan option's benefit guide or plan summary (a PDF is fine, even a scanned one), and your recent claims history: the explanations of benefits (EOBs) or claims spreadsheet you can download from your insurer's member website under Claims, plus pharmacy claims if you fill prescriptions. The last 12 months gives the best starting point; add earlier years to plan around your highest, lowest or average year. Direct insurer connections are in testing; see insurer connections to request yours.

Yes. If you and a spouse or partner both have employer coverage, add both benefit guides. HerePup tests every way your household can enroll, including splitting people across the two employers' plans.

Yes. Money your employer puts into a health savings account (HSA) is subtracted from that plan's cost. Before you see an answer, you confirm the amount for each HSA plan, or confirm the employer puts in nothing. If you need a certain kind of plan, you can also tell HerePup to consider only HSA plans, or only plans without one.

HerePup models each kind of care in your claims history under each plan's deductibles, coinsurance, copays, prescription tiers and out-of-pocket maximums, and checks the model against what your insurer actually charged when your files include it. Its estimate assumes your care looks like your history, adjusted with the What if slider. New conditions or care you don't expect can change real costs, prices and plan rules change, and specialty drug tiers are not modeled yet.

Use the What if slider to model anywhere from no care to three times the care in your claims history. HerePup shows the points where a different plan would become the better choice, so you can pick the plan that holds up for the year you expect.

No. HerePup compares costs, not networks. Before you enroll, check each plan's provider directory for the doctors, hospitals and pharmacies you use.

No. HerePup doesn't sell insurance and isn't a broker. It gives you an estimate to help you decide; your plan's official documents decide what's covered.

Yes, in any up-to-date browser. Reading long or scanned PDFs is faster on a computer.