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Don’t Forget About the Individual Mandate!

It’s now been a year since the 2016 presidential election and nearly ten months since inauguration day. By now, most of us expected major portions of the Affordable Care Act to be repealed and thought the individual mandate would be one of the first parts to go. That hasn’t happened, of course, which means that our clients are still required to purchase health insurance or face a penalty under the ACA’s shared responsibility provision.
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Using Headlines to Sell More Insurance

In previous articles, we’ve talked about the power of social media to generate leads and stay in touch with clients and prospects. Specifically, we’ve explained that content marketing, in which you share some valuable information in a way that doesn’t sound too salesy, can be especially effective at maintaining interest and creating likes and shares.
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Final Expense: Something Everyone Needs

They say the only two things in life that are guaranteed are death and taxes, and since most of us aren’t CPAs, we should probably focus our attention on the former rather than the latter.
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It’s Selling Season! Here are a Few Reminders.

As you can probably tell, we’re pretty excited here at America’s Health Care Plan. We’re entering the fourth quarter, and very soon the busy time of the year in the Individual, Medicare, and Group Health markets will be upon us. It’s a time of great opportunity, especially this year, so we wanted to offer a few pointers to help you maximize your time and, therefore, your selling potential. We hope you can find a nugget or two in our words that will help your business.
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Are you selling dental? You should be.

In the weeks ahead, you’ll be visiting in person or by phone with almost every one of your clients and prospects. That means that you have a great opportunity, with a slight adjustment to your normal sales pitch, to increase your income substantially while offering a great benefit that both individuals and employers will be interested in.
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Medicare 101

In just a few weeks, the Annual Election Period for Medicare Advantage and Medicare Part D plans will open, and when it does agents who had intended to start selling Medicare products this year, perhaps because of the instability in the individual market, but who failed to get certified to sell those products will have missed their opportunity. Sure, they can still sell supplements all year long, but the big opportunity that comes only once a year will be behind us and they’ll have to wait until October, 2018 for their next chance. To help those of you who are still deciding whether to expand your portfolio to include Medicare-related products or not, we thought we’d provide a short “Medicare 101” tutorial. And for those of you who already sell Medigap policies, Medicare Advantage plans, and Medicare Part D prescription drug plans, this should serve as a nice refresher. Since it’s often necessary to educate clients and prospects about what they currently have before explaining what their options are, knowing how to do that in concise terms may prove helpful. Here we go... What is Medicare? Let’s start off with the basics – what, exactly, is Medicare? Put simply, Medicare is a government-run health insurance program for people over the age of 65, people receiving Social Security Disability payments, and people with End Stage Renal Disease (kidney failure requiring dialysis). Medicare was signed into law back in 1965 and was originally created for older Americans who had trouble qualifying for insurance at the time. Over the years, Medicare has been modified on a number of occasions. In 1972, for instance, it was expanded to include the disabled and people with ESRD. In 1997, President Clinton signed the Balanced Budget Act, which created the Medicare + Choice program (now called Medicare Advantage). In 2003, President Bush signed the Medicare Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act, which created the Medicare Part D drug program and expanded funding for Medicare Advantage. And the Affordable Care Act, signed into law in 2010 by President Obama, added a number of new preventive services to the program and began to close the unpopular Part D donut hole. While many lawmakers believe Medicare needs some serious improvements, others would like to expand the program to include those age 55 and older or even to cover all Americans. The government program does have a high approval rating among those who receive Medicare benefits.
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What’s Your Job Description? Is It Changing?

When a company is searching for a new employee, it often provides a “job description” that explains the qualifications for the position in terms of experience and education, highlights the big areas of responsibility the job would entail, and details the various tasks the employee would be expected to perform on a daily basis. It helps applicants determine if they meet the job requirements and sets expectations once they’re offered the position.
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Will they really let Obamacare fail?

By now, everyone’s heard the news: the Republican efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act have failed in the Senate. After three unsuccessful votes—first on the Better Care Reconciliation Act, then on a repeal and delay bill, then on a skinny repeal—majority leader Mitch McConnell declared on July 27 that “it’s time to move on.” For now, repeal & replace is dead, though the efforts could certainly be revived sometime in the future.
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What is Concierge Medicine?

As premiums continue to increase and plan designs are tweaked to keep costs under control, today’s health insurance policies are quickly turning into catastrophic coverage. They’re great if you have a big, unexpected medical expense but aren’t all that useful for some of the day-to-day needs like doctor visits and prescription drugs. Sure, members do get the benefit of the carrier’s negotiated rate if they stay within the insurance company’s shrinking provider network, but consumers are beginning to realize that there are other options outside the health plan that might help them save money while receiving better care. And as health insurance plans cover less and less, we’ll see more and more of these non-insurance solutions.
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HSA Limits for 2018

The Internal Revenue Service has announced the 2018 deductible, out-of-pocket, and contribution limits for Health Savings Accounts. Here they are:
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