Gone to The Wild Kingdom

[moonlightandmargaritas]

Did you mean to type this? Folks on some sort of government health care will double by 2011, can't stop the runaway train, the government steals your money and pays for healthcare for folks, especially if they are from Mexico. Individual health insurance will be a thing of the past by 2010.

There, I fixed it for you. { keep in mind, I don't want it, but it looks like we are headed there. Hey, I don't work for the government, I just get my dollars taken away by them.}

My assertions are based on facts, not emotionally spewed rhetoric, which is foolish, and serves no useful purpose except maybe to make you feel better.

Go ahead and check 'em out.

Your posts seem to want to defend Mutual of Omaha as some kind of "prophet" as to the individual health insurance market situation. The fact is that they were a losing player, for whatever reason, and abandoned the market. For them, it was probably a smart business decision.

The fact of the matter is, the big health insurance players (UHC, Humana, KP, etc.) are at a minimum, twenty times bigger than MoO, and probably twenty times as profitable too.

Of course they don't have Marlin Perkins though...

 

[HomeService]

Humana gets 70% of their money from the government. So, basically, if you sell somebody an individual Humana policy, they are basically buying a government subsidized program, in a round about way. All I am saying is that a Mutual company decided not to partake in individual health insurance. Maybe they spotted a trend. Maybe they saw that health companies were having trouble making profits without the government subsidies.

check it out:

"Humana, which derives about 70 percent of its revenue from government sources, is more exposed to changes in government reimbursement rates than its competitors."

Humana Profit More Than Doubles, Aided by Medicare Gains - New York Times

 

[Crabcake Johnny]

1st you're talking about individual health insurance, now you're talking about the senior market. You're saying that individual health is going away and so far I've seen no supporting documentation.

 

[moonlightandmargaritas]

Humana gets 70% of their money from the government. So, basically, if you sell somebody an individual Humana policy, they are basically buying a government subsidized program, in a round about way. All I am saying is that a Mutual company decided not to partake in individual health insurance. Maybe they spotted a trend. Maybe they saw that health companies were having trouble making profits without the government subsidies.

check it out:

"Humana, which derives about 70 percent of its revenue from government sources, is more exposed to changes in government reimbursement rates than its competitors."

Humana Profit More Than Doubles, Aided by Medicare Gains - New York Times

Any company involved in health insurance (including Humana) separates Medicare related, and under 65 products into different blocks.

Not only do they have differing actuarial, morbidity and expense related items, they have to stand on their own as a "block".

Humana's under 65 individual health insurance doesn't receive any Medicare subsidies, is very profitable, and they are in fact expanding it rapidly, as are many other carriers due to the growth of the market for IFP.

How is it that ehealthinsurance.com did $84 million in revenue last year (doubled since '04), and projects $115 million this year if this is not a rapidly expanding market?

 

[HomeService]

Humana sells individual health and senior market {both} here in TX, that article did not "seperate the monies" within the company, I would assume that Humana does not seperate the monies earned either, or maybe they do, who knows. I know they have a fairly good individual policy here in TX, but the senior market is strictly medicare advantage only, no supps.

 

[HomeService]

Basically I think that either Hillary or Obama or McCain, all three, would love to see more government involvement in the taking of tax money and applying it towards healthcare. All three of those folks. I think Al was making that point also. The politicians love to move money around, then take credit for moving the money around. The private health insurance companies usually get the raw deal in that case. Life insurance, on the other hand, seems fairly safe for now.

 

[susieQ]

I was shown BC/BS of TX's profit numbers last year, couldn't find them again but I remember them to be obscene. So I don't think they are going away. Unless that changed dramatically.

 

[devanator]

This morning I signed the contracts with Mutual of Omaha.
Al

al3

How is the new company working out for you? I have an interview this next Weds with MofO in MN. At their career night, I was really impressed with their philosophy on things and the way they like to approach their clients and such. But I'm am new into the industry and am learning. I would hate to get "buffaloed." Any advice you can give me?

I took their online profile the day after they had their career night, they said I scored well and have a 2 hour interview next. Then their is another 2 interviews after that. Quite extensive. But I sort of like that also. I feel better with the idea of a company backing myself being that I am so new. Being independent sounds good, but scares me at this point.

I feel like you do in that I would like to work the whole package for my clients. Their financial needs along with their insurance. It seems to be a good fit.

devanantor

 

[Guest]

al3

How is the new company working out for you? I have an interview this next Weds with MofO in MN.

So far so good. The training has been excellent. The local manager gives class for about 3 hours twice a week and the regional manager comes in from Oakland (to Sacramento) once a week to give a 2 or three hour class. This will go on for another 3 weeks or so. There are only 4 or 5 of us in the class so it is informal and structured to the experience level of the group... and all of us have had experience in the industry before and all of us are well over 40 (one gal was with UA for a while and later NAA... the stories she tells you would not believe!)

Every other word in these classes is about doing "right" for the client, about brining cases to the manager to talk about what to recommend, and to do a good fact-finder followed by an analysis with the manager.. and not a one-call "slam-bam, thank you ma'am" close. In fact the word "closer" is banned from use. "Pros don't close... they don't have to," we are taught.

We're taught to rely on the good name of the company as well as the products along with a clear and concise presentation to let the client convince himself that what we propose is the right thing. We've been taught when asked what we do we should say something like "We help people do two things. One is to lower taxes and the other is to increase the return on their savings." The entire philosophy of MoO is that if you do a totally professional job in finding the needs of the client and then presenting the material clearly that the customer will close themselves... no pressure, no hype, no scare tactics.

The Winflex software they give you (free) does a find job at doing illustrations and they train us how to use it (pretty simple.)

The only drawback I've seen is that some of the newer and better products have not yet been approved in CA. But that is OK because MoO has no problem with me going through Crump or any other GA and selling whatever I want if MoO does not have something appropriate. (There is no mention of non-compete or any "captivity" in their 6 page contract. They 'get' it when it comes to how agents feel about being restrained.) I'll probably go through CPS to write a Guardian $300K DI buy-out for one guy and Petersen (Lloyds) for another (over 61).

I'm sure the company is not perfect but so far I've enjoyed the classes, the other agents, the manager, the office admin, and the fact that it is a mile or two from my house (I can walk there if I want) and they always have Hershey's dark-chocolate "kisses" in the reception area for all of us to eat!

Oh, one other thing I like about MoO... the motto: "Begin today."

"Ms. Prospect, no matter how old you are or what your financial position is, the Mutual of Omaha motto, which is "Begin today" is right on target, don't you agree?"

(Almost) everyone says "It sure is, I wish I had started earlier to put something away. I hope it's not too late."

That's the sound of a someone in pain and someone you can help.

(Note: I don't mean to imply that the other old-line houses like Met, NYL, NE, NW, MassMu, etc. are not fine and excellent houses to work for or that MoO is any better than anyone else. I'm only saying what my experience has been... and as I always say, YMMV.)

Al
MoO

 

[devanator]

Thanks for the reply. I will tell you how it goes for me after my interview this Wednesday. I'm excited about the opportunity. There is not another office except 45 miles away. A local office does sell some of their products but they have many other lines that they deal with, and they do not handle any financial things. I hope it is a good fit for both sides. Them and me.