A Positive Perspective to Health Care Reform?

[Central Coast Agent]

Staying on point with figuring out how to adapt to HCR...

I watched a MetLife commercial lastnight that was advertising a Life/DI package.

So, if a company like MetLife is advertising a specific "ancillary" (Life is primary for a lot of brokers, ancillary for me) product like Life/DI, then I'm sure they did their research and figured that this is a good prodcut for market.

If I were to package a term life product through my GA (HCO) with a DI product...might be a sound investment of time.

Not too familiar with DI, so does anyone have a recommendation on a solid DI carrier that pays their claims, that an agent could package with term life?

MetLife comes to mind...but I'm not contracted with them, so I'm thinking of GenWorth or Prudential for Life and XXX for the DI portion...any suggestions?

Salts...what do you think about this idea?

Do you think its better to sell ancillary health related products like DI, CI, ACC and Life around health, or would it be more effective to get PC up and running and sell Auto/HO/PL?

I like where this thread is going...strategy. Please keep the ideas coming.

 

[Mr_Ed]

Be careful about giving bad advice, "policy-pushing" is very rarely in the client's best interest!

For a person younger than 60, they should spend their available dollars on a good program of disability insurance before they ever consider LTCi.

Just good, basic financial planning advice.

great point, moon.

Here's a copy of post I made at a consumer forum the other day regarding when it makes sense to own LTCi:


There are 2 objective factors to help determine if someone should purchase long-term care insurance:

a) Do you have higher financial planning priorities in place: medical insurance, disability insurance, life insurance (if you have dependents), all high-interest debt is paid off, and you are maximizing your contributions to your retirement accounts each year. If those higher priorities are not taken care of, then you should NOT purchase long-term care insurance no matter what age you are.

b) Do you have enough income (or assets) to justify the cost of the policy? As a general rule, if you are married and your total household income is under $50,000 per year (including re-investment income), you probably shouldn't purchase long-term care insurance because you could probably qualify for Medicaid without too much loss in lifestyle or assets.

 

[bcbroker]

I've been reading this forum the last week or so, and it has kind of bummed me out a little...understandably with so much uncertainty about the future.

Below I make a suggestion that we may want to use this forum to share positive and productive ideas about how to move forward in HCR world. Here is why...

I'm a pretty new agent, been selling mostly IFP's and some group health for about 14 months now.

Thing is, I'm loving it. I REALLY like selling Health Insurance. February and March have been my best months so far, and I'm on track for a good April with a couple of medium sized groups.

Its a fun and rewarding job...I B2B and telemarket and meet a lot of nice people. I work for myself and don't have a sales manager hanging over my head. I get to help people. Cool.

I plan on staying around awhile...but if you read some of these posts...its like there is no tomorrow.

As a newer agent, I feel I may have a different perspective than what I've been reading on here from a lot of the old salts...while I respect their experience, I would like to share some thoughts:

I've been looking around the internet for signs of the demise of the health insurance agent, and I'm just not seeing it. If you read the articles and statements from national and local associations and industry op-eds, it seems uniform: We don't really know how this is going to play out, but regardless, there will be a place for brokers and agents in this new environment. Agents will have to adapt, and those that can, will survive.

GA communications have been upbeat if anything...most have also been about adaptation, not demise.

Since truly NOBODY knows what the new environment is really going to look like at this point, one can only guess...and it seems silly to get caught up in scenarios that may or may not play out.

So, this is how I'm looking at it. I'm going to TRY to not get too bummed out reading these posts. Focus on selling and take changes as they come. I might bone up on some other products and start cross selling now, so that I'm not starting from zero if the worst does happen. And if the worst does happen, as an insurance professional, here are just a few products I can switch to:

Life, CI, DI, Accident, Voluntary Benefits, Workers Comp, Auto, HO, Commercial Liability, D&O, Aviation, Marine...the list goes on, and each of them has agents who are making a good living selling them.

So, to put this to bed...yes, things are uncertain for health insurance agents right now, but its probably not the END of health insurance agents, at least for those that can adapt to the new environment, whatever that turns out to be.

And if the worst case scenario turns out to be, then there is a list of other types of insurance to sell. You don't even have to leave your industry (insurance), just switch gears...sell something else.

Yes, you may need a new license and/or some experience, and you can probably start on that now instead of reading end of the world posts...its easier than you think (except for E&O for P&C which seems to be in the $2500 range here in Cali).

I would like to suggest that we use this part of the site for something useful...to strategize and inform eachother instead of trying to guess what bad thing is going to happen next.

One last thing: Think about tax preparers. Anyone can do their taxes by picking up a form at the post office...or purchasing a software program, or going to a big firm like H&R Block. But there are thousands of tax preparers who are mom and pop shops in their area of town that do very well year after year...why? Because people PREFER to do business with someone they know and trust.

I don't see that same dynamic for agents changing in the future, regardless of HCR. Comp will change (not disappear), but if there is a need in the market, which there is, for people who can explain and humanize insurance, then there should be no shortage of opportunity.

Please reply with your constructive thoughts about moving forward in a post HCR environment. What are you going to do or how will you change your business to adapt...knowing what you know now?

Relax, when we went through the senior market reform back in the late 1980's, we actually made more money. We could go apples to apples on Medicare plans, and even if the 60% 1st year commission went down to 22%, we got the same on renewals as opposed to 10%. We did alright with that!

 

[martino]

I've been reading this forum the last week or so, and it has kind of bummed me out a little...understandably with so much uncertainty about the future.

Below I make a suggestion that we may want to use this forum to share positive and productive ideas about how to move forward in HCR world. Here is why...

I'm a pretty new agent, been selling mostly IFP's and some group health for about 14 months now.

Thing is, I'm loving it. I REALLY like selling Health Insurance. February and March have been my best months so far, and I'm on track for a good April with a couple of medium sized groups.

Its a fun and rewarding job...I B2B and telemarket and meet a lot of nice people. I work for myself and don't have a sales manager hanging over my head. I get to help people. Cool.

I plan on staying around awhile...but if you read some of these posts...its like there is no tomorrow.

As a newer agent, I feel I may have a different perspective than what I've been reading on here from a lot of the old salts...while I respect their experience, I would like to share some thoughts:

I've been looking around the internet for signs of the demise of the health insurance agent, and I'm just not seeing it. If you read the articles and statements from national and local associations and industry op-eds, it seems uniform: We don't really know how this is going to play out, but regardless, there will be a place for brokers and agents in this new environment. Agents will have to adapt, and those that can, will survive.

GA communications have been upbeat if anything...most have also been about adaptation, not demise.

Since truly NOBODY knows what the new environment is really going to look like at this point, one can only guess...and it seems silly to get caught up in scenarios that may or may not play out.

So, this is how I'm looking at it. I'm going to TRY to not get too bummed out reading these posts. Focus on selling and take changes as they come. I might bone up on some other products and start cross selling now, so that I'm not starting from zero if the worst does happen. And if the worst does happen, as an insurance professional, here are just a few products I can switch to:

Life, CI, DI, Accident, Voluntary Benefits, Workers Comp, Auto, HO, Commercial Liability, D&O, Aviation, Marine...the list goes on, and each of them has agents who are making a good living selling them.

So, to put this to bed...yes, things are uncertain for health insurance agents right now, but its probably not the END of health insurance agents, at least for those that can adapt to the new environment, whatever that turns out to be.

And if the worst case scenario turns out to be, then there is a list of other types of insurance to sell. You don't even have to leave your industry (insurance), just switch gears...sell something else.

Yes, you may need a new license and/or some experience, and you can probably start on that now instead of reading end of the world posts...its easier than you think (except for E&O for P&C which seems to be in the $2500 range here in Cali).

I would like to suggest that we use this part of the site for something useful...to strategize and inform eachother instead of trying to guess what bad thing is going to happen next.

One last thing: Think about tax preparers. Anyone can do their taxes by picking up a form at the post office...or purchasing a software program, or going to a big firm like H&R Block. But there are thousands of tax preparers who are mom and pop shops in their area of town that do very well year after year...why? Because people PREFER to do business with someone they know and trust.

I don't see that same dynamic for agents changing in the future, regardless of HCR. Comp will change (not disappear), but if there is a need in the market, which there is, for people who can explain and humanize insurance, then there should be no shortage of opportunity.

Please reply with your constructive thoughts about moving forward in a post HCR environment. What are you going to do or how will you change your business to adapt...knowing what you know now?

I agree 100% I have had those same thoughts.

 

[Central Coast Agent]

OK, so my research continues...here is some information I have found out and a possible route I might take...

Since I really like selling health benefits to individuals and small groups, and I don't really want to switch to P&C for mostly economic and practical reasons (E&O is hard to get without experience and its not cheap, P&C is a different ball game, etc...)

I am leaning more toward building up DI through dibroker.com and voluntary benefits. If you research both of these, it appears that both can really add some revenue to a health/life practice because they are unaffected by HCR and have decent commissions. There is also a need for these products in the market and will continue to be one in the future.

So, as I see it, as a result of health care reform marketing and middlemen will be the first thing to be cut back by the large health carriers. They don't really have any other choice with MLR's of 80% and 85%. Notice I say cut back, not cut off.

When commissions reduce in health insurance, I plan on stabalizing those reductions with added revenue from DI, CI, and Voluntary Benefits.

I'm considering Allstate Workplace Divisioin for my VB, as my research shows they are the best, and don't require that you be captive...and again dibroker.com for DI, CI, etc.

If anyone has any constructive comments or suggestions about this strategy, please lend your expertise...does this sound like the right way to deal with the threat of HCR on my health business?

Any other suggestions?

Again, the idea here is that instead of prognosticating on how bad things are going to be, let's work together as professionals to figure out solid plan to meet the new HCR environment.

Any input in the regard, especially from the seasoned veterans out there who may have exerience with DI and VB would be helpful.

 

[debbiknapp]

Change=Opportunity!!!

The thread here is great for agents that see this and want to work together to uncover the opportunity. I keep thinking that if government ultimately ends up with HC completely in it's lap, isn't there a good chance we'll be selling health care supplement polices similar to Medicare supplements? I mean the government can't prohibit products to enter the market can they????

Personally I really welcome the idea of selling GI health insurance, even though I don't agree with most of the reform that has passed. Lower commissions yes, but there is the potential of earning more "per hour".

It sounds like the LTC portion of the bill is going to open a lot of opportunity to sell a better LTC product than what the government is requiring people to either enroll in or waive.

I'm also very new to the business. Got my license with a division of Mega Life (Alliance for Affordable Services) initially then decided I couldn't sell their junk and frowned on ALL individual health because of their wonderful brainwashing training. I quickly switched to the VB market. Now I'm over my IH anxiety and putting it back in my basket of eggs. I think the IH "newbies" have an advantage in a way...will maybe find it easier to think out of the box and roll with the punches.

Debbi

 

[Winter_123]

Personally I really welcome the idea of selling GI health insurance, Lower commissions yes, but there is the potential of earning more "per hour".

Debbi

Does thee base this conclusion on theory and logic and speculation or through actual knowledge of how it is working for agents in states that currently have GI?

 

[Crabcake Johnny]

For me it's based on experience. I sell MHIP like flapjacks on Sunday. Easiest sales I've ever made. If all I did for a living was sell MHIP I'd write 3 a day without blinking.

As it stands I'm only comped $100 flat. Move that to 5% and I'm in business all day long.

 

[Winter_123]

For me it's based on experience. I sell MHIP like flapjacks on Sunday. Easiest sales I've ever made. If all I did for a living was sell MHIP I'd write 3 a day without blinking.

As it stands I'm only comped $100 flat. Move that to 5% and I'm in business all day long.

That sounds good. My question is about independent agents in guaranteed issue states. Must be a bonanza for them, eh?

 

[Crabcake Johnny]

Can't use that model. Currently the national carriers don't have to participate in those states so most don't. Also, the federal gov't isn't offering premium subsidies for 400% and below FLP in states like NY. And aside from MA there's no other GI state with a mandate.

Basically, you can't compare states like NY for what's coming down the pike.