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Special Enrollment Period Ends August 15

We’re in the last few days of the six-month Special Enrollment Period (SEP). During the SEP, which was announced shortly after President Biden took office, consumers have had an opportunity to sign up for health coverage and, for those who qualify, take advantage of the enhanced premium tax credits under the American Rescue Plan Act. The SEP was set to end May 15, but CMS announced in March that it was being extended to the middle of August.
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How the COBRA Subsidy Can Boost Individual Sales

In a recent post, we provided details about the new COBRA and State Continuation subsidy under the American Rescue Plan Act. If you missed it, the subsidy pays 100% of the COBRA or state mini-COBRA premium between April 1 and September 30 for COBRA/mini-COBRA eligible employees and covered family members who’ve lost their group coverage due to a reduction in work hours or an involuntary loss of employment. Click here to read the article.
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Quick Overview of the ARPA COBRA Subsidy

If you have group health clients, you’re probably receiving calls from them asking about the new COBRA subsidy created by the American Rescue Plan Act. President Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID relief bill provides a 100% subsidy for up to six months of the COBRA or state continuation premiums for eligible employees, former employees, and their covered family members. While that’s certainly a good thing for those who qualify, it’s creating headaches for employers and plan administrators. In this post, we’ll try to get you started and help answer some of the most important questions about the subsidy. There’s still some confusion about how this will work, so we won’t be getting too “in the weeds.”
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Halfway Through the SEP

By now, you’ve certainly heard about—and hopefully you’re taking advantage of—the three-month special enrollment period in the individual market. For those who haven’t paid close attention, here’s a quick summary to get you up to speed.
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Four Different Types of Deductibles

Most people find insurance confusing. For agents, this isn’t a big surprise; we see the confusion on our clients’ faces when we try to explain their options to them, and we regularly hear clients use insurance terms like copay and coinsurance interchangeably.
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Why You Should Be Selling Life Insurance to Millennials

Even when nothing’s biting, fishing can be a fun and relaxing activity. We get a chance to be outdoors, and if we go with someone else, the time spent together can be enjoyable. Still, “catching…a bunch of fish,” as Outdoors Weekly points out, “is the main reason that we go fishing.” And to accomplish this goal, we need to find hungry fish. Here’s some advice the magazine provides in a recent article: To consistently catch fish, we first need to find them. However, at times just finding the fish isn’t enough. You’ve got to find the fish that are willing to eat your bait.
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Don’t Be Afraid to Sell HMOs

As advisors, our job is to evaluate our client’s situation and make customized recommendations about health insurance and other types of coverage. Unfortunately, some agents are guilty of telling clients what they want to hear rather than what they need to hear; instead of recommending cost-saving solutions that are outside the client’s comfort zone, some advisors adopt a “don’t rock the boat” strategy, narrowing their plan recommendations to those that satisfy their client’s wants but not necessarily their needs.
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Sales Tip: Talk in Terms of Net Coverage

Life is full of risks, and as insurance agents, we help our clients reduce their exposure to some of these risks by selling them products that will indemnify them if they have a covered loss. However, as we all know, most insurance policies—and this is certainly true when talking about health insurance—do not provide total protection, and it’s impossible to insure everything.
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Teaming Up To Get More Leads

A lot of independent agents work in a silo. They communicate with their clients and prospects but rarely interact with other brokers. And that’s a shame. Not only is there a lot to learn by getting to know your peers, but it could also help you get more leads and sell more business.
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Do you have a great website? Here’s how to get one.

As we recently explained, the habits that both agents and their clients developed during the COVID-19 lockdown will continue well after we return to the office. Specifically, people are now accustomed to shopping online, so there will likely be less demand for face-to-face meetings in the months ahead.
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