Independent brokerage · Duluth, Minnesota
Forty-one plans look identical. Two of them fit you.
Bluestem compares every individual and family plan sold at your address — premiums after subsidy, real deductibles, whether your doctors are actually in network — and puts the three worth considering on one page. Quoting and enrolment are free; we're paid by the carrier, not by you.
- No fee to you, ever
- No SSN to get a quote
- A licensed agent, not a call centre
See what you'd actually pay
Health plans are priced county by county, so we start with one question. Three more after that — no phone number, no SSN.
A quote never affects your credit and never obligates you to enrol. We don't sell or share what you tell us.
A real comparison for a 41-year-old in Duluth, redrawn. Yours will have your doctors and your prescriptions on it.
What actually goes wrong
Nobody shops for health insurance badly on purpose.
The system is built so that the easy choice and the right one rarely match. Here's where it goes wrong, and what we do about each one.
The problem
Forty-one plans, four metal tiers, and no way to compare them
The marketplace sorts by premium, which is the one number that tells you least about what a year of coverage will actually cost you.
What we do
One 20-minute call and a one-page comparison of the three that fit
We model your likely year — not the best case — across every plan sold at your address, and send you the shortlist in writing before you decide anything.
The problem
You find out what isn't covered at the worst possible moment
Networks change every January. The plan that covered your clinic last year may quietly not, and nobody sends a letter you'd notice.
What we do
Your doctors and prescriptions checked before you enrol, not after
Give us your providers and your medication list. We verify each one against the plan's current network and formulary, and put the result in your comparison.
The problem
Paying for coverage you can't afford to actually use
A low premium with a $9,000 deductible isn't insurance you'll use in March. Plenty of households buy one without realising that's the trade.
What we do
Premium and deductible weighed together, plus the subsidy you may not know about
Roughly four in five households we quote qualify for a premium tax credit. We calculate it with you on the call, using your real expected income.
The problem
Nobody answers the phone in February
Coverage questions don't arrive during open enrolment. They arrive when a claim gets denied and the number on your card leads to a queue.
What we do
The agent who enrolled you, on a direct line, all year
Denied claim, a new prescription, a job change mid-year — you call Dana, Marcus, or Priya directly. Same person, same file, no re-explaining.
Who you'd be trusting
Three licensed agents, and you'll know which one is yours.
Bluestem has been independent since 2011. Licence numbers below are current and verifiable with each state's department of commerce.
- 15years
- Independent since 2011
- 6,400+
- Households enrolled
- 5states
- Licensed and appointed
- 94%
- Renew with us each year
Dana Whitfield
Principal agent
Founded Bluestem after nine years on the carrier side. Handles most self-employed and early-retiree households.
- Licensed in
- MN, WI, ND
- Licence
- MN-A-4417291
- With Bluestem since
- 2011
Marcus Oyelaran
Senior licensed agent
Specialises in prescription-heavy households and the subsidy math for variable freelance income.
- Licensed in
- WI, IA, MN
- Licence
- WI-H-2208864
- With Bluestem since
- 2016
Priya Raghavan
Licensed agent
Covers the western territory, including rural networks where the provider list matters more than the premium.
- Licensed in
- ND, SD, MN
- Licence
- ND-A-1176052
- With Bluestem since
- 2019
Credentials
Marketplace-Certified Agents
All three agents recertified for plan year 2026
NAIHA Certified Benefits Advisor
National Association of Independent Health Advisors, since 2013
Upper Midwest Insurance Council
Member brokerage in good standing, member no. 4412
Errors & omissions covered
$2M professional liability policy, renewed annually
Appointed with
- Northloop Health
- Granite Ridge Mutual
- Bluecoast Care Network
- Vantage Health Midwest
- Copperfield Health
- Iron Range Benefit Co.
4.9 from 382 client reviews
Duluth officeMadison office
Where we're licensed
Five states, and we say no outside them
Plan networks are local. An agent who quotes all fifty states can't know which clinic in Grand Forks is in network this year — so we stay where we can.
- Minnesota3,180 households · MN-A-4417291
- Wisconsin1,540 households · WI-H-2208864
- Iowa870 households · IA-L-9930471
- North Dakota460 households · ND-A-1176052
- South Dakota350 households · SD-A-1176053
212 W Superior St, Suite 400, Duluth, MN 55802
How it works
From a ZIP code to enrolled, in about a week.
Four steps, and you can stop after any of them. Most people spend 25 minutes with us in total.
Start with step oneStart with your ZIP code
About 2 minutesPlans and prices are set county by county, so your ZIP is the first thing that narrows the field. Three short questions after that and we know enough to quote you — no Social Security number, no credit check, nothing that touches your file.
Talk to a licensed agent
20 minutes, by phone or videoBring your doctors, your prescriptions, and roughly what you expect to earn this year. We'll tell you what you qualify for, in plain numbers, and what the trade-offs are between the plans that fit. No pitch — we're paid the same regardless of which one you pick.
Read your written comparison
Within 2 business daysOne page, three plans, side by side: monthly premium after any subsidy, deductible, out-of-pocket maximum, whether each of your providers is in network, and what your specific medications cost on each. Take a week with it if you want.
We enrol you and stay on the file
Same day you decideWe submit the application, confirm the carrier has it, and check that your first payment posts. Then we stay your agent of record — so the next time something goes wrong with a claim, there's already someone who knows your plan.
Before you book, the awkward questions.
Still unanswered? hello@bluestemhealthpartners.example reaches Dana. Replies inside a working day.
Book a call
Twenty minutes with a licensed agent, and you'll know where you stand.
No cost, no obligation, and nothing to enrol in at the end of it. Plenty of the people we talk to stay exactly where they are — we tell them so and that's the end of it.
- Your subsidy, calculated live
- Your doctors checked in network
- Prescription costs, plan by plan
- A written comparison after
Pick a day
Pick a time
Central time · 20 minutes
Choose a time above and we'll hold it while you confirm.
Video or phone, your choice on the invite. No charge, and nothing to enrol in at the end of it — Mon–Fri, 8am–6pm Central.