You Tell 'em in CT, Mary Jennings!

[somarco]

Canadians come here for treatment and buy US insurance to do it.

Obamacare, or something else (like international travel medical)?

National Healthcare across the globe has morphed into reduced benefit plans or rationing to absorb costs.

Yet somehow the left always misses that. I suppose one could argue that the cost of health insurance (here) is also a rationing tool.

But that was before Obama made health insurance affordable for everyone.

 

[ARus]

"Dear Agent/Broker,

This is a reminder of a great opportunity for agents and brokers. Last year during Open Enrollment 2016, agents and brokers enrolled consumers in Marketplace plans at a variety of retail locations, including Walmart stores across the country. The opportunity to be in Walmart stores will be available again this year during Open Enrollment for 2017. In order to participate in this Walmart event, you must hold a valid state license and be trained and registered to participate in the Marketplace for 2017. Click here for more information on how to train and register to assist consumers enroll in Marketplace plans for Open Enrollment this year.

To learn about this Walmart opportunity and to indicate your interest in participating, click here. As other opportunities arise, we will keep you informed.

Thank you for participating in Marketplace Open Enrollment this year!"


This is ridiculous! They still believe insurance is a commodity and think that our experience is gained just over night.

 

[tonyisme]

My wife listens to the Spanish radio station local and that's all they're talking about on the radio today... about Medicare and the local indigent Az plan called AHCCCS &
health care & how to get it , what's happening in the insurance industry. They are scaring the crap out everybody.. they are promoting Planned Parenthood
as " Healthcare ". They are trying to have an effect on the voting population

 

[somarco]

our experience is gained just over night.

I responded to a tiny classified ad and talked to someone named Don. For just $39.95 he sent me his complete course on how I could get rich by placing tiny classified ads offering information on how to enroll in Obamacare.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mubCkCAEiDQ

 

[Ann H]

We live in a time of CHANGE. So, who will pay us further??? is the big question.

Yes, big question! "Who will pay us further?" This is a "tunnel", for sure, where the road ahead is dark, and the answer is unknown. So, this post is not aimed at you, nor any particular poster, but is aimed at all agents who are facing the crash and the tunnel.

I have been an independent health insurance agent for 36 years, so "Mama" is going to exhort again, like I did when ACA was passed. ACA's passage was a huge impending crash to any agent who had a current big block of clients. Big rises are followed by big falls. So, if it's a big law like ACA, expect a big crash. If it's a change like Copay PPO to HSA PPO, then expect a smaller bump.

But just like big rises are followed by big falls, big falls are followed by big opportunities. If one market crashes, another market must offer a solution, and consumers flock en masse. For the opportunist, that means sales.

Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats. If you see the glass as half full, you see Strengths and Opportunities (the Optimist). If you see the glass as half empty, you see Weaknesses and Threats (the Pessimist). But if you rise above that, and see the entire picture, with the glass as BOTH half empty and half full (the Realist), then you can succeed like a boss. Bosses hire Sales Teams to build revenue, and Accounting/Management Teams, to navigate the road ahead through its threats. If you are a boss or one-man agency, you must wear both hats.

Taking that "50,000 foot view" is imperative. America is blessed/cursed with a Capitalistic Baby-Boomer Millennial concept of thriving indefinitely. So, when crashes come, Americans say, "Why, why, why meeeee?", rather than, "Well, I expected crashes in life, so let's navigate around or through it." Americans are shocked when their job ends, or their industry crashes, or their marriage goes through dips. They don't think, "Of course there are dips and crashes, so let's move up, sideways, or suffer a permanent loss." All industries crash. Mortgage brokers, real estate industry, tech bubble, credit/interest rates, yellow pages, phonograph records... And soon, it will be Healthcare Providers, probably Bankers (given the proposed laws), or Retail which is suffering as Amazon replaces them, and more... But mortgage brokers are back, real estate agents are thriving again, pensions were replaced with 401Ks, google replaced yellow pages and someone will replace google someday. Any major column of support in society must find a solution to its crash, and there is always money in the solution. Healthcare is a major column of support in society. Insurance against financial loss is another major column of support. Answers must arise on major issues. Society always finds a way, and free-enterprise always finds a way. If you EXPECT rises, falls, and rises again, you can navigate it. If you don't expect that, you will be lost, crying in your beer, wondering why you experienced a crash again.

For those who think underwriting can never come back, look around. It has done it in the group market! Group insurance was Simplified Employer-Level Health Questions long before ACA, and then Guaranteed Issue under ACA for groups less than 50. Guess what? Now we are back to full group underwriting, with employee-level health questionnaires. Yes, even down to very small groups. And, yes, the product has been upgraded from what it was historically, in order to meet the realities in the market and the demand. It's called Level Funding (Partially Self-Funded). Some call it "cherry picking". If the group market (a very stable traditional market) can move to underwriting in order to maximize the loopholes in the ACA law, don't think that Individuals and Families won't move to STM, CI, FI, Sharing Ministries, or any other product. Whether or not you want to sell those products in their currently unacceptable form is another issue, but yes, people will flock to underwriting. And, yes, it is probable that an insurer will see that upgrading the product to good standards will be a windfall given today's realities. And, yes, it creates adverse selection in the "yesterday" market, and yes, by "yesterday market" I mean ACA.

Here are keys for the younger agents and/or newbies, from someone who has survived and thrived through 36 years as a health insurance agent:

1. If you don't like roller coasters, don't take the health insurance ride. This industry will twist and turn (sometimes wildly).

2. Keep moving forward. Everything morphs into something new until root issues are solved. And "something new" is "the same ole thing all over again".

3. Spend 5 minutes crying about the loss of yesterday and 5 hours preparing for the opportunities of today and tomorrow.

4. Have a solid Plan B, or liquid assets to live on during the "tunnel" when yesterday ends and tomorrow is just a dim light ahead with no idea where it leads. Tunnels come. So do lights at the end of them.

5. Don't spend everything you earn. Save. Tunnels come.

6. Only the strong survive. However, the strong might also take a Plan B, completely exiting Plan A. That's still a good choice! There are many ways to handle a crash. 1) You can exit and go into another thriving market. 2) You can survive through the tunnel, and take the opportunity (usually a big windfall opportunity) that comes at the end of the tunnel. 3) Or you can be a surfer, entering an industry on its upswing, surfing through the good times, and exiting just before the crash, in anticipation of entering another market on its upswing. All 3 methods are good choices. You cannot take any of those choices if you don't understand that rises will fall, and falls will rise. Strong life-time succeeders maximize opportunity through threats. Most other people don't even see it. It's not that they don't see the threat or the crash. It's that they don't understand the bigger picture and how to surf it.

7. Making money is one of your goals. So is health, family time, etc. One person picks volume call-center sales to a flashy number of clients (with high expenses & losses too), another person picks professional-adviser sales to higher-income clients (without high volume, but good money and longer relationships), and the next person picks more family time so they do less volume and less depth (with less money). Who made the bad choice? None of them, if it fit their skill sets and goals.

8. SWOT analysis - Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. Pick the path that matches your skill sets, your region, your risk tolerance, your opportunities, and your goals. Match those issues together correctly, and succeeding is a no-brainer. Then go big or go home.

9. Ask for help, listen to advice. But pick what's best for YOU, and be confident enough to not falter when your best friend picks an entirely different course.

10. There is always tomorrow and it is as bright with opportunity as you want it to be.

 

[Yagents]

Nice post Ms Ann..................