New Era Contracting

[somarco]

Back off Marc.

Obamacare is not my market. Never was. After almost 40 years in the group and individual insurance I bailed from the U65 health insurance market in 2013. Didn't want any part of it. Voluntarily walked away from a 6 figure income.

FWIW I NEVER sold an indemnity plan.

Have you always pushed the New Era product or did you drink the Mega Life KoolAid as well?

If you want to sell junk coverage, that is your right.

I seem to recall conversation about the junk indemnity plans when Obamacare was in its' infancy. Couldn't recall if the prohibition on offering junk indemnity plans was carrier specific or included in the 23,000 pages of Obamacare regs.

I DO know one of the precepts of Obamacare was to make it illegal to sell junk indemnity plans like Mega.

Thanks for posting the DISCLOSURE notice.

Do you read that verbatim to your suckers that buy this crap? Do you REALLY believe everyone (or even anyone) who buys this junk reads and understands it?

Your posts shows you are just a peddler.

Have a nice day.

 

[rousemark]

Back off Marc.

Obamacare is not my market. Never was. After almost 40 years in the group and individual insurance I bailed from the U65 health insurance market in 2013. Didn't want any part of it. Voluntarily walked away from a 6 figure income.

FWIW I NEVER sold an indemnity plan.

Have you always pushed the New Era product or did you drink the Mega Life KoolAid as well?

If you want to sell junk coverage, that is your right.

I seem to recall conversation about the junk indemnity plans when Obamacare was in its' infancy. Couldn't recall if the prohibition on offering junk indemnity plans was carrier specific or included in the 23,000 pages of Obamacare regs.

I DO know one of the precepts of Obamacare was to make it illegal to sell junk indemnity plans like Mega.

Thanks for posting the DISCLOSURE notice.

Do you read that verbatim to your suckers that buy this crap? Do you REALLY believe everyone (or even anyone) who buys this junk reads and understands it?

Your posts shows you are just a peddler.

Have a nice day.

Central United won a lawsuit against the government over thier requiring a person to have an ACA plan before they buy an indemnity.

 

[Devin01]

I love the aggressive nature of your post and I appreciate the name calling!

Obamacare is dying product and is in trouble, and as such you will likely see more of these alternative plans in the future.

Like I posted, this is simply an alternative and if properly explained as an option to an ACA plan. It is up to the client if they are interested in it (Yes we properly explain it while we are quoting it). I do not need to lie and mislead clients, our business is established and I am not struggling to find clients. We can agree to disagree on the topic. I do not really care, the fact is, this product is on the market, there is no enrollment time period, so people can move in and out of it at any point and it is an underwritten product and like you say there is a fair amount of complexity with it.

I would offer this product just like I would explain a Med Supp VS Med Advantage and explain all options available. When I talk to my Medicare clients now, we go over all options and discuss the trade-offs, and like most of us on the forum the client tells us what they want. You have the right to the call this product garbage if you choose and not offer it. I like to have many products to offer people not just Medicare Supplement Products ( PDPs, MAPD, MED SUPPS, Annuities, Final Expense, SPWL and our office does under 65. If I learned anything on the forum, everybody's business is different.

To answer your comment:

"Have you always pushed the New Era product or did you drink the Mega Life KoolAid as well?"

I offer New Era to my clients when it is a good fit for them based on their health conditions and find they have a nice niche for underwriting for Medicare and U65.

I stand by my previous post and I am not saying this product is for everybody, it is on the market and being sold as an alternative to ACA Plans:
This product is simply an alternative to an ACA Plan, it has its niche just like the Christian Health Share Plans. It is a Fixed-indemnity insurance plan and does not meet the Minimum Essential Coverage requirements under the Affordable Care Act and you may need to pay a tax penalty depending upon your income level and the cost of plans available.

Have a Great Day as well

 

[somarco]

And POOF!

Two in the same thread are banished forever. That has got to be a new record.

Thanks for the heads up, Louis. An agent friend that is still (barely) in the U65 market alerted me to a court decision in 2016 stating Obamacare was guilty of overreach in setting guidelines for health insurance policies.

So I was right, up to 2016.

Indemnity plans were banned until challenged in court.

Doesn't matter. Still a bad idea but you can't fix stupid.

 

[somarco]

I ran into a guy a few years back. Dropped his BX major med because the premium was too high. Bought a POS M E G A indemnity plan. Few months later landed in the hospital due to a medical crisis. Several days in ICU plus a couple more weeks before discharge.

His M E G A plan that was sold as covering everything @ 100% left him $40k in debt and sued by the hospital. Had to file BK.

Your E&O won't protect you against stupidity.

 

[rousemark]

Sure it does... A great many mistakes made by agents are due to stupidly.. The product is approved by the state insurance departments and therefore the E&O will have to apply tot hat product the same as any other health plan. I have never sold this type of indemnity plan but Manhattan does have a good little supplemental Indemnity plan I would sell. There is no way it could be confused for "major medical" insurance..

 

[Bob L]

I've sold a few of these Philadelphia American plans here in Tennessee, but only after carefully explaining their limitations. Every client had incomes that caused their ACA premiums to be excessive.

One of these is my wife. We both had PA but I dropped mine a while back in favor of a less expensive STM (as I have no pre-ex conditions) and it's a good fit. She still has hers.

We often get overage benefit checks in the mail from Philadelphia American after one of her frequent doctor or lab visits. She has lots of minor maladies, nothing serious. She had a colonoscopy last year at a local hospital, and after all the dust settled, we ended up with a $900 check from PA after everything was paid.

The plan I put her on pays three times the Medicare-approved fees for inpatient hospital and one or two other services. You can often negotiate with these hospitals. It goes something like this: 1) Do you take Medicare patients (yes), and 2) Will you accept twice the Medicare fee for this service (yes). We pocket the rest. If you use providers in the PHCS network, that's where you come out smelling like a rose.

I had one client with prostate cancer who ended up with a couple $thousand after he was done paying the bills. He called me asking "Is this legal?" I told him sure it is, enjoy your money. He was ecstatic.

There are shortcomings of course. For example, if your client takes expensive prescriptions, the coverage is minimal. Ditto for ER visits and similar things. But when you compare it to the premium for a crappy bronze ACA plan which costs three times as much, we are fine self-insuring a little bit.

They're not for everyone, just one more option to look at. Meanwhile, I can't wait until I can enroll myself in a UHC Medicare Advantage HMO this fall when I turn 65.

 

[somarco]

Manhattan does have a good little supplemental Indemnity plan I would sell. There is no way it could be confused for "major medical" insurance..

"Good" and "indemnity" health plans are mutually exclusive terms that don't belong in the same sentence.

If indemnity and other limited benefit plans could not be confused with major medical insurance why are carriers sued when the policyholder's claims are not paid?

I can tell you there are a number of agents, including some on this forum, who have sold indemnity health plans believing they are just as good as a major medical plan.

And there are folks who STILL to this day are buying indemnity plans because they are less expensive than Obamacare and they believe the plans cover 100% of your claim because that is what the agent told them.

If you read an E&O policy you will see there is enough weasel language in those plans that allow them to deny practically any claim.

I carrier E&O because carriers require it. Otherwise I would not have it.

 

[Bob L]

"Good" and "indemnity" health plans are mutually exclusive terms that don't belong in the same sentence.

If indemnity and other limited benefit plans could not be confused with major medical insurance why are carriers sued when the policyholder's claims are not paid?

I can tell you there are a number of agents, including some on this forum, who have sold indemnity health plans believing they are just as good as a major medical plan.

And there are folks who STILL to this day are buying indemnity plans because they are less expensive than Obamacare and they believe the plans cover 100% of your claim because that is what the agent told them.

If you read an E&O policy you will see there is enough weasel language in those plans that allow them to deny practically any claim.

I carrier E&O because carriers require it. Otherwise I would not have it.

IMVHO, any so-called "agent" who represented anything remotely like what you state above ought to have his license revoked, no questions asked. Whether it's an accidental policy, Med Advantage, HIP, or anything else, it needs to be truthfully described to the client with all its advantages and disadvantages -- which is what I do when meeting with clients.

 

[somarco]

When you have been in the business as long as I have you are rarely surprised at what agents say to make the sale, or what policyholders believe about their policy.

Years ago I worked with an agent who had 20 years experience selling small group health plans. He asked me to help him with a larger group. I told him what I needed and he got it for me.

After reviewing the data I told him the carrier would not issue a quote on the case. A dependent had CF and had some reasonably large claims.

The agent was shocked that no carrier would make an offer. He told me the CF dependent was the owners son and he often see's him at the business. The son "looks healthy".

He had no clue what CF was nor did he understand why a carrier would decline the case when someone LOOKED perfectly fine.

I have worked with hundreds of agents and thousands of clients. Almost nothing shocks me.

Almost . . .