The Annual Election Period for Medicare Advantage and Medicare Part D plans has started (October 15th) and runs through December 7, which means you have very little time to get certified to sell these products if you haven’t already. And maybe that is your plan—to leave this market to agents who don’t mind the one-on-one nature of Medicare sales and are comfortable navigating a government website to find the best solution for their clients. Fair enough. But before you completely dismiss selling Medicare products, we wanted to share a few last-minute thoughts with you.

There’s an opportunity to earn commission

For some agents, this is all that they need to hear. Medicare products actually pay pretty well. How much? Take a look at the following numbers:

Of course, these numbers can vary a bit, but hopefully it’s caught your attention. If you sell a new Medicare Advantage client, one who’s never had a Medicare Advantage plan before, you’ll make an average of $443 year one and $222 at renewal (based on a range of commission from premiums that vary by age, location, etc). If you switch a client from one Advantage plan to another, the year one commission is lower but the renewal commission is the same. Keep in mind that Medicare clients tend to stay on the books longer than individuals and that many times you’ll sign up both a husband and a wife, with potential to double your commission.

Medicare supplement clients will bring in about $20 to $25 per month in commission, tend to stay on the books even longer, and will usually ask for your help with a Medicare Part D plan as well. That means that a Medicare Supplement / Medicare Part D client could bring in about $300 per year. Not too bad.

One more thing: because many Medicare clients tend to stick with their existing plan year after year, renewals are a LOT easier than individual and group health insurance products. That means you can spend the busy selling season actually selling rather than trying to hang on to your existing clients.

There are plenty of Medicare prospects

Baby Boomers were born between 1946 and 1964, which means that they’ve been aging into Medicare for the past five or six years and will continue to do so for the next decade. That’s great news for agents since 10 thousand new prospects are turning 65 every day according to U.S. News. Contrast that with the individual market, where the primary people who “age in” to the market are young invincibles who are just turning 18 or who are dropping off of their parents’ plan at age 26. We all know that they may not make very good prospects.

Even if you focus on group or individual products and want to continue doing so, chances are that you have clients who become eligible for Medicare every single year. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to help them out and earn some commission for your efforts?

You won’t have to deal with the ACA

If you’re one of the thousands of agents across the country who are sick of learning about and adapting to the continual changes to the health reform law, one of the biggest advantages of selling Medicare products is that you don’t have to deal with all of the ACA reforms. Sure, there are rules you have to follow. Medicare has some pretty strict marketing guidelines to help protect Medicare beneficiaries, but those rules have not changed significantly from year to year. Learn them once and the annual certification process will be a breeze.

AHCP can help!

Last but not least, we have the products and the training to help you be successful started selling Medicare products. If you’re ready to get started or would like to learn more, give us a call today.