" We already have coverage through our Husbands employe

[NHB_MMA]

I never found that an employer paid so little of the premium that an individual plan could compete

Probably because you have so little exposure to the real world of employer provided plans.

Big companies do pay a significant portion of the premium. Sometimes 80% or more of the total, not just the employee cost.

School systems may pay 30 - 40% of the total cost, still leaving many paying $500+ per month in premiums. That leaves some easy pickings for the astute agent.

As you spend more time in the under 100 & under 50 market you will find just the opposite. Many of these employers pay little, if any toward the cost of dependent insurance. This can be a windfall.

You're probably right, as I have not spent that much time with B2B or even the health market when I did it years ago. I just mean if you find that someone is insuring their whole family for $200-$300 per month, you might as well walk on to the next potential prospect. I imagine that situation is relatively common, but you say there are plenty of folks that are only receiving 30%-40% of premiums paid, so maybe there is some good opportunity.

My current employer pays 80% of my United HMO and New York Life will pay 90% of the Aetna HMO I'll soon be on, individual or family. For me, and this is because I know more than most consumers about insurance, you would have to beat my group coverage by a significant margin because of some of the small pitfalls individual has versus group coverage. That is not to say that individual health is not a great product, since it truly is, but there are some very real disadvantages too.

 

[Crabcake Johnny]

You have to watch saying "group" as if all group plans are the same. There are group plans the suck incredibally bad. There are high deductible plans with just a discount for drugs and next to no outpatient services.

You also have to realize it's all up to the employer. What I deal with a lot is free coverage for the employee but go to add the family and they pay the entire cost to add the family. A lot of group plans are HMOs and we can create an entire thread about why I hate HMOs.

Just because you have a good deal on group doesn't mean that's how group is across the US. I just moved a single lady age 35 off her large group plan. Her portion of it was about $300 per month and she had a $1,500 deductible and paid 40% for name brand drugs. Now she's at almost half the cost with far better benefits.

A deal before that was a guy only paying $30 a week for his coverage. But the rest of his family didn't have anything because if he added them it would shoot up past $600 a month.

 

[NHB_MMA]

You have to watch saying "group" as if all group plans are the same. There are group plans the suck incredibally bad. There are high deductible plans with just a discount for drugs and next to no outpatient services.

You also have to realize it's all up to the employer. What I deal with a lot is free coverage for the employee but go to add the family and they pay the entire cost to add the family. A lot of group plans are HMOs and we can create an entire thread about why I hate HMOs.

Just because you have a good deal on group doesn't mean that's how group is across the US. I just moved a single lady age 35 off her large group plan. Her portion of it was about $300 per month and she had a $1,500 deductible and paid 40% for name brand drugs. Now she's at almost half the cost with far better benefits.

A deal before that was a guy only paying $30 a week for his coverage. But the rest of his family didn't have anything because if he added them it would shoot up past $600 a month.

I guess it's true that not all plans are all that great, as they're employer designed. It's something to keep an eye out for.

I remember when I used to temp at Adecco and they offered this awful insurance policy for around $100 per month that actually made NASE look attractive and I'm not kidding. Sometime tells me that they actually paid very little, if any, of the cost of that insurance.