Interesting Stats - Missouri and Kansas

[INSMKT]

On the news tonight Fox4 they were saying that there were 190,000 individuals without health insurance alone in the KCK and KCM metro area. They were saying that the biggest reason that is the case is because it is a financial burden. Interesting info for the Agents who sell in those states. I am sure it is like that everywhere but I just found it good info for people who focus directly on health!!

 

[Golddoor]

Yea, I seen a couple of days ago where the State of Texas has 1.2 million people without health insurance. That gave me a little more motivation to get out and get people insured!!

 

[somarco]

There will always be folks who are uninsured as long as there are people who lack a sense of personal responsibility. It doesn't seem to matter if you are talking about 10,000 uninsured or 10,000,000 . . . the numbers always shake out the same.

About 40% qualify for some form of taxpayer funded plan such as Medicaid but have not signed up for the coverage.

About 40% earn too much to qualify for taxpayer funded plans, and earn enough (north of $50k) to pay for health insurance, they simply choose to spend their money in other ways.

The remaining 20% earn too much to qualify for taxpayer funded plans, and do not earn enough to pay for health insurance.

Your job is to identify the 40% who can afford coverage and convince them just how stupid it is to go without coverage. That means that Golddoor has around 500,000 prospects in his state and insmkt around 80,000 in his back door.

After you accomplish that, you can turn your attention to the 85% or so of Americans who are woefully under-insured for life insurance and the 70% or so who lack adequate disability income insurance.

Of course let's not forget that 2/3 of us will need some form of long term care assistance at one point in our life yet only 4% of the adult population owns LTC insurance.

No one ever said you can't sell for lack of prospects to talk to. Imagine what it would be like if you sold buggy whips. Your market would be places like the Amish community, horse farms and the S&M crowd.

Your work is cut out for you. Good luck.

 

[Crabcake Johnny]

I guess we need to understand that a lot of people simply have the same mentality as some of us. Does everyone on this board have all forms of insurance? Permanent life with the correct DB? LTC? Long-term disability? I don't have any of those. I certainly don't have long-term disability. Why? Can't say. I guess - just like most people without health insurance I:

A: Cannot picture myself with a long-term disability
B: Simply never think about it
C: Think it's a 100% waste of money to pay for something I'll probably never use.
C: Think the odds are so incredibally low that I'd ever use it that the risk of not having it might be worth it.

So am I right? No. I should have it.

 

[Sam]

Great post Somarco.
I actually do have all the coverages that I need, health dental, life: IUL and term, STD, LTD, auto and homeowners.
However, I ONLY have them because my wife shamed me into them, not because it is good risk management! She went on and on about how I sold things I didn't believe in until I bought them.

 

[somarco]

Covering every possible contingency with insurance is not financially possible for most of us, so we make choices. Health insurance is not cheap but can be affordable. When a medical crisis strikes the monthly premium seems like a bargain compared to trying to find a way to pay off a $100,000 medical bill, or going without treatment because you can't afford $3k per month for meds.

The government (courtesy of the taxpayers) has provided a safety net for most of these situations. If you live to age 62 or so you have a Social Security retirement benefit sufficient to keep you from starving as long as you acquire a taste for dog food.

And there is SSDI for those who can wait approximately 18 months to collect their disability benefit, including back payments, less attorney fees.

Of course let's not forget the $255 paid from Social Security in the event of your death.

For those without medical insurance there is public assistance paid for by working taxpayers (the top 50% of wage earners pay 93% of the income taxes) as well as cost shifting to those with the ability to pay. And those without health insurance have the privilege of surrendering their assets and allowing their wages to be garnished. Of course there is always bankruptcy.

So with all of these alternatives, why does anyone need insurance?

 

[midwestbroker]

Here in Kansas City, we have no shortage of prospects. Somarco talks about finding that 40%, that is about 76,000 people here.

There is also no shortage of insurance agents here, as with most metros.

We even have all the temp teams here; Mega, UA, NBA, and I am sure that there are some more out there that I do not know about. Mega even runs ads on the AM talk radio shows.

I would like to see a comparison, how many people in Kansas City have cable vs. health insurance. I would think that would be an eye opener for people. I am sick, cannot afford to go to the hospital, but I can watch HBO all night!

That is why I went to the senior market.