Broker's Advocate at White House:

[houcoogster]

MaryD you might want to make exit plans. My prediction is BX will be at or near 0% by 2017 and the other carriers won't pay much more.

Somarcodamus iz in da houzzzz.

New nickname is "0marco"

 

[FLM2]

The stupid thing in all of this is that the agent/broker is the only one in the entire distribution chain (carrier, provider, etc) that actually gives a crap about the consumer, the rest of them only care about their bottom lines.

If the insurance companies decide that paying 0% commissions and losing subscribers in the process is in their best interests they will do so unless the government steps up and standardizes commissions in the same manner as Medicare Advantage.

Will this happen? Who knows, we don't even know if subsidies will still be active in July let alone project a few years. All an agent can do is take one year at a time and be smart enough to have a backup plan in place that operates side by side with the ACA market now, not several years from now.

 

[YouGotMyMoney]

One of the big problems I'm seeing is got no where to flip these people to, take GA for example 2014 Humana POS ran the show, for PPO they ran it again in 2015, move to HMO (UHC, Cov or Humana itself) to save money .

 

[FLM2]

One of the big problems I'm seeing is got no where to flip these people to, take GA for example 2014 Humana POS ran the show, for PPO they ran it again in 2015, move to HMO (UHC, Cov or Humana itself) to save money .

It is a problem but, if commissions for some of these carriers stay the same, at least Humana, Cigna, and Aetna/Coventry don't have the same kind of vanishing commission schedule as Assurant and UHC-I've never moved people for the sake of a new FYC but clearly have a problem with a commission schedule that goes to 1% or 2% after year 2.

When the difference in FYC and renewals is only a couple of points it's OK to leave people with a carrier unless their rates get out of line.

 

[YouGotMyMoney]

UHC now is the only carrier worth selling from a stand point of profitability. Blue Cross FL no renewals, Cigna 6% but not an opportunity to sell them much but their Local Plus network sucks compared to Assurant and Blue Cross FL, Aetna/Coventry $21 pm pm and a CAP! , Humana huge drop from last year.

UHC 9% Avg $45 /mo FYC
Humana 6% Avg $30 /mo FYC
Cigna 6% Avg $30 /mo FYC
Aetna Coventry $21 pmpm
Blue Cross FL Avg $15 pmpm
Blue Cross TX 5% Avg $25 pmpm


Look at an average commissionable premium of $500/mo 1 member (Typical Internet Lead)

Average commission of $28 a month, $336/yr comp for single apps, back in the day before reform you'd have to be selling $150 mo apps as average to make that little money or selling med supps $1500 yr x 20% , or Med Adv .

Only reason to continue to sell ACA people is when you have a min of 2 people on the app, or a case might be made if you had a COA of $50 or less.

Imagine a small phone sales team doing 1000 new apps, would you rather make over 12 months $540k or $336k? That's why I don't even take leads in South Florida anymore, cheapest 2 carriers are Humana and Coventry.

Now 1000 min of 2 members would be pheneneomal......

 

[GreenSky]

Seems like the comp really isn't that different than for Medicare supplements on a per person basis.

Rick

 

[FLM2]

UHC now is the only carrier worth selling from a stand point of profitability. Blue Cross FL no renewals, Cigna 6% but not an opportunity to sell them much but their Local Plus network sucks compared to Assurant and Blue Cross FL, Aetna/Coventry $21 pm pm and a CAP! , Humana huge drop from last year.

UHC 9% Avg $45 /mo FYC
Humana 6% Avg $30 /mo FYC
Cigna 6% Avg $30 /mo FYC
Aetna Coventry $21 pmpm
Blue Cross FL Avg $15 pmpm
Blue Cross TX 5% Avg $25 pmpm


Look at an average commissionable premium of $500/mo 1 member (Typical Internet Lead)

Average commission of $28 a month, $336/yr comp for single apps, back in the day before reform you'd have to be selling $150 mo apps as average to make that little money or selling med supps $1500 yr x 20% , or Med Adv .

Only reason to continue to sell ACA people is when you have a min of 2 people on the app, or a case might be made if you had a COA of $50 or less.

Imagine a small phone sales team doing 1000 new apps, would you rather make over 12 months $540k or $336k? That's why I don't even take leads in South Florida anymore, cheapest 2 carriers are Humana and Coventry.

Now 1000 min of 2 members would be pheneneomal......

We have a different business model (you-leads, me-referrals) so this is a very different market for us.

A Medicare-type commission structure would work for me but I doubt it would work for you, there just isn't enough money there to support an acquisition cost of even $50 per sale when you consider persistency and other factors. I've been able to get to a $0 acquisition cost for clients and have started turning people down sometimes, you can't afford to do that when you have already paid for the lead.