Long Term Care and Disability Insurance

Have you considered a High-Deductible Medicare Supplement Plan F?

Presented by Tim Dreher Do your healthy senior clients ever express to you their frustration about paying high monthly premiums for their Medicare Supplement policies and then rarely using them? Are they tired of getting “the letter” every year from their insurance company announcing yet another round of rate increases? There is an alternative that you and your clients might want to consider. Maybe you should be talking to those clients about switching to a High-Deductible Medicare Supplement Plan F. If your clients are willing to pay out of pocket for certain health care costs then maybe a high-deductible plan is the answer for them. A high-deductible Medigap plan can help your clients save on premium costs while still getting dependable coverage for their healthcare needs. Premiums for a high-deductible Medicare Supplement Plan F typically run about one third to one fourth of what you would normally pay for a regular Medicare Supplement Plan F. Like any other Medicare Supplement policy, high-deductible plans still have the largest nationwide network of doctors and hospitals because they have the same network as original Medicare. Let’s take a look at how these plans work. A high-deductible Medicare Supplement Plan F pays the same benefits as a regular Medicare Supplement Plan F but only after the policyholder has satisfied a calendar year deductible. For 2016 that deductible amount is $2,180. In other words, the deductible amount represents the annual out-of-pocket expenses that the policyholder must pay before the plan starts paying benefits. Out-of-pocket expenses attributed to this deductible are those Medicare approved expenses that would ordinarily be paid by the policy. It is important to remember that the deductible is only applied to the Medicare Supplement portion. Medicare will still pay approximately 80% of any approved service and the Medicare beneficiary is responsible for the remaining 20%, which is then picked up by the Medicare Supplement policy. For example, one of your Medicare eligible clients has a medical procedure that costs $5,000. Typically, Medicare would cover $4,000 of the bill and the individual’s Medicare Supplement policy would pick up the remaining $1,000. If your client owned a high-deductible plan then he or she would pay the $1,000 out of pocket that would be applied toward the deductible. Once the deductible is met the Plan would pay the same as a regular Plan F. I would imagine that many of your senior clients would be open to the ideas of a high-deductible plan since most are used to paying higher deductibles with their pre-age 65 health plans. A high-deductible Plan F is certainly not for everyone. But for those healthy clients of yours that like the idea of paying a much lower premium and are comfortable knowing that the trade-off would be paying some expenses out-of pocket before the plan begins paying, the High-Deductible Medicare Supplement Plan F might be a great fit.
Life Insurance

High Deductible Survival Plan – Part Three

Presented by Brian Leising In parts one and two, I explained how a basic term life policy with a critical illness provision could help your clients pay their health insurance deductibles in the event of a major illness. In this part, I will introduce methods and tools you can use to market this new term life policy to your existing clients. Since we’re talking about your existing health insurance clients, you already know who your target audience will be and have their contact information. Why not stay in touch with your clients the old fashioned way, through the mail? Better yet, start using an e-mail campaign system. The graphic design team at Financial Brokerage has developed a piece you can use with your clients to drive interest in this concept. We can work with you to have this same piece emailed to your clients on a regular basis. If you are not taking advantage of social media to stay in touch with clients and find new ones, now is a great time to start. Posting helpful advice on your business Facebook page, Linked-in and Twitter accounts costs you absolutely nothing. If you are not familiar with these free online platforms, our Guide to using Social Media can help you get started. All of these resources are available for agents contracted through Financial Brokerage. We can also provide access to the insurance carriers that currently offer critical illness benefits in your state. There is no reason to make your clients wait until they are dead to benefit from their term life insurance policy.
Life Insurance

High Deductible Survival Plan – Part Two

Presented by Brian Leising In part one, I discussed the needs many people have for both money to pay high health insurance deductibles and life insurance coverage. What if a life insurance policy could provide a traditional death benefit and a living benefit that clients could use to cover their deductible? Such policies do exist. In fact, one major insurance company lists cancer, heart attack, stroke, major organ transplant, end stage renal failure, ALS, blindness, paralysis and loss of two or more limbs as qualifying conditions to accelerate part of the death benefit. How much money could they get from their life insurance policy if one of these things happened? Here is an example from that same insurance company estimating how much money a 40 year old male with a $500,000 death benefit might receive: Age at Claim                                 SEVERITY Minor             Moderate             Severe 50                           $93,273         $184,293            $315,259 60                           $72,065         $187,309            $349,915 70                           $1,000           $63,466              $298,004 The carrier will categorize the client’s condition at the time of claim as minor, moderate or severe based on how that condition affects their life expectancy. The more severe the condition, the more money they receive. Any funds paid to the client while living reduce the death benefit dollar for dollar. Your clients no longer have to wait until they die to benefit from their term life insurance policy. How much does something like this cost? Here’s an example: For a non-smoking, preferred plus male, age 40 seeking $500,000 on a 30 year term life, the lowest price is $54.50/month. Another company with a one-time living benefit option costs only 36 cents more. A third company offers a traditional term plan that comes within a couple of dollars, with their living benefit product running only slightly more at $66/month. If your client can afford the $54 product, do you think they could afford just $12 more? In part three, I will explain methods and tools you can use to market this new term life policy to your existing clients.
Life Insurance

High Deductible Survival Plan – Part One

Presented by Brian Leising Do you have clients with high deductible health insurance policies? Do you know people that need term life insurance? What do these questions even have in common? Follow along and I will explain. With the recent changes in the health insurance market, more people than ever now have high deductible plans. Some never enjoyed coverage previously and some chose these plans due to price. What if something happened to them, a heart attack or cancer diagnosis for example, would they have the funds to pay for their high deductible all at once? Where will they get the money? A recent study showed half of the people in our country have no life insurance at all, and half of the other half don’t have enough. You know people that need term life insurance, three of every four people you meet according to the statistics. We know many people need a source of funds to pay their health insurance deductibles, and they likely have a need for life insurance. What if their life insurance policy could do more than just one thing? What if their policy could provide a death benefit and a living benefit they could use to cover their deductible? In part two, I will explain how this works and how affordable these new policies really are.