UtahBill said:
My retirement does not cover my medical so I have a major medical policy for myself to cover me until medicare age. At age 59, I pay only $142 per month for $5,000 deductible. Not a bad deal at all.
That's a great rate for your age bracket, congratulations. I assume you have a PPO plan, but that's just based on your monthly premium.
Beer and cigarette money for a lot of people.
Sad thing is, many potential customers will substitute lifestyle expenses for insurance, I was planning on making that point, glad you beat me to it.
But there still could be situations where an insurance company drops you, or you lose your job taking care of a spouse and they drop you. There needs to be a safety net so we don't lose all we have just to stay alive. Perhaps an umbrella policy of sorts?
True enough, every company has in the contract some provision allowing for that, one of the most common reasons are falsifying pre-existing conditions, another, like one of the companies I sell through have that provision and a lifetime maximum allowance. But basically, it's a risk assessment thing, unfortunately, with the price
rofit ratio it has to be done that way, and it's one of the things that always dissappoints me, I really do wish we could serve customers more thoroughly, but then again I'm one of the more client oriented agents.
My rates are based on age, general good health history, and being a non-smoker/drinker. My only bad habit is caffeine.
However, a friend has to pay a LOT more for his wife due to serious long term debilitating disease and it is eating up his retirement income. He pays almost $15,000 per year just for her insurance alone. His retirement includes his medical.
Yikes! 15K a year is harsh, it happens, but there may be some private sector solutions to his retirement drain, a good financial planner would need to look at his portfolio.
As for loss of income, you are being very self centered. We have had whole industries and job types displaced by technology, and we adapted. We can't be Luddites selectively.
It's a principle thing, the same people who don't want to deal with me because insurance isn't something they can have fun with, or isn't satisfying till they need it are the one's who would put me out of the health business, so, why should I do anything to help them out, including more work.
Besides, the 4 insurance agents that I know make very good money for doing very little.
It's not as easy as you would think, most of our time is spent screaming at clerks who mess up the clients plan, or sluggish response to said clients needs, I will admit that it looks easy, but trust me, we earn our money.
One of them sells one product, AFLAC, and he lives very well. He was the first agent for them in the area, tho.
AFLAC is a very good product, there are more hoops to jump through to get a group signed, but they do a very good job after the initial process is completed.
I
found out how much my stock broker was getting paid to give me bad advice (when he wasn't out playing tennis or handball) and found a better deal elsewhere.
A bad broker can literally ruin you, that's part three of my career plan, but yeah, I hear you on that, see if there are any ethics violations you can get him on, you'll save other people a big headache.
There are some jobs out there where the people think that they are entitled to live off the sweat of others.
At least it's a job, there are people who don't do anything and live off the sweat of others, when you break it down though, that attitude pervades all jobs, lazy employees, lazy brokers, it's pretty much the same concept.
Insurance is necessary, some is even required, but that doesn't mean that the industry can't adjust itself a bit.
Try firing 20% of all upper management, 10% of all middle management, and 5% of all others. Then pass the savings on to your customers. What a concept!
we make mistakes like anyone else, I don't mind so much getting rid of some in upper management, but it honestly won't make much of a dent in costs, insurance rates are all risk based, salaries are secondary.
Make insurance more affordable, and stop ripping off those who have high dollar illnesses thru no fault of their own, and you will likely get more customers.
It's a myth that we're ripping off customers, some companies are less than ethical, true, but that is not an exclusive to our profession. Trust me though, I'd love to have a more affordable product, my profits would go through the roof, but it's not an option.
Charge a LOT extra for those who insist on unhealthy lifestyles. That is legal discrimination, by the way.
Risk to cost ratio, legal by necessity.
Not all aspects of communism/socialism are bad, and not all aspects of capitalism are good. You can't scare me with those old ghosts.:2wave:
Well, not all aspects of capitalism are good anyway. I was mostly joking about that, but socialism has proven itself to be a dismal failure, it assumes people care about their society, which is against human nature, in that assumption it punishes initiative, thus bringing down the upper class at an attempt at equilibrium instead of bringing up the lower class, misery for all, yay!
BTW, are you posting from WORK?
I'm an independent agent, I'm always at work.
