Social Security number online
originally posted: 11/22/2006 reposted: 2/18/2011 This post has not been recently reviewed or revised by the author and may be out of date. If in doubt, please send a new question or ask for an update.
Q: I recently considered getting a quote for supplemental health insurance at www.basichealthinsurance.net and noted that it requires the social security number of the applicant. At other sites, I saw that this was not a required field. I am not at all comfortable sending a social security number just for a quote. Is it actually required at this site or is there a way to see a health insurance quote without sending the number?
A: No legitimate online insurance requires a social security number for a quote, so this should trigger a red flag. The Web site you mentioned www.basichealthinsurance.net definitely does not ask for a social security number until you actually apply for coverage. Take a second look and you will see that only your age and location are needed for accurate pricing. On the other hand, all health insurance require a social security number for members to comply with tax regulations and there are no known issues of abuse of this information for online applications; all the sites supported by OnlineAdviser have a spotless track record for protecting private information.
Summary
More resources:
http://www.basichealthinsurance.net