Bob Graham, Executive Editor

A friend recently asked me how to find health insurance. His employer had eliminated coverage because of cost, leaving him and several other employees to fend for themselves. My friend is well-educated, intelligent and capable. At first, I wondered if he was just playing with me. “I’m serious,” he said into the phone.

In the coming months, as small businesses look for ways to tighten their belts in the wake of a toughening economy, more people will fall into the category of my friend. The Economic Policy Institute estimates that 8.6 million of the estimated 47 million who are uninsured in the U.S. joined the ranks because of the loss of employer-sponsored health coverage.

Schools don’t teach how to find insurance coverage, health or otherwise. Parents usually don’t teach their children the value or need for insurance. (My father practically forced my wife and me to get life insurance when we first married. It proved to be a smart move. I got real sick in my late 20s and the chances of a life insurer taking a risk on me are about as good as Ron Paul becoming president.)

My friend went on to tell me that he went online searching for information on health insurance. He isn’t alone. About a quarter (28%) of American Internet users searched for the term “health insurance” on the Internet in 2006, according to one study. Think about that. One in four searches involved the health insurance. If many of them met with the same frustration as my friend, mired in a maze of get-rich-quick schemes and coverage options that, after searching more closely, were not available in his state, the need for a voice of reason, someone to help navigate these unchartered and extremely important waters exists.

My friend had no idea he could find an agent to help him with health coverage in the same way we customarily find an agent to help with homeowners’ and auto insurance. In fact, it took me several minutes to recognize the option myself – and I deal with insurance all day. Why is that?

No health carriers advertise health insurance options during sports events. There isn’t the Humana race car in NASCAR or the Blue Cross car in IndyCar racing. UnitedHealth Group hasn’t created a distinctive mascot like the GEICO gecko.

Business is based on serving a need, ideally, a previously untapped need. There’s obviously a need here. Who can and will serve it? And how can the message get out to people in the same boat as my friend?