Articles:

This edition of Vision is our annual awards issue. The pages herein are dedicated to recognizing the exceptional achievements of Managers and Agents in 2001. Each of these individuals is to be commended for their contributions, and we are proud to have them as an important part of the United American T.E.A.M. The pages that follow do truly contain "portraits of distinction."

Before we continue, an important update needs to be made to the May issue of Vision. Last month’s edition contained information regarding new lock-in laws for voluntary disenrollees of Medicare+Choice programs. However, after the magazine had already gone to press, Congress passed legislation affecting these new laws. As it stands now, the lock-in laws will be delayed for three more years, and in return the date for HMOs to announce withdrawals has been pushed back to the fall, like last year. No doubt - this is certainly a good trade for UA Agents!

And now even more new opportunities have come our way, in record numbers. As we go through our routines everyday, we become focused on our current business. While focus can certainly be a rewarding endeavor, sometimes when we concentrate on one specific area we may miss opportunities in others. Like the many opportunities we see in the Senior market, the Underage Health market is also rapidly developing, and we want to take advantage of these growing opportunities too. Does this mean we are going to shift part of our production from the Med-Supp business? Of course not; we’ll write even more Med-Supps as our market continues to grow. But now, interesting additional markets are also growing at a break-neck pace. 

Because of the growth of both markets, I am suggesting that you add Underage Health and Life sales to your current Medicare Supplement business. Hypothetically speaking, if I threw three $10,000 bills on the ground, would you pick up only one of them? Of course not, but many Agents leave two of these in the field daily. Why not pick up all of them — one for Medicare, one for Life and one for Underage? Many of us are leaving millions of dollars on the tables of potential customers right now. UA has a diverse portfolio of products, and it is important we take advantage of all UA offers.

I would like to point out that some of our UA Agencies have realized the potential of the Underage Health market in the past few months. As I previously stated in an e-mail, one Agency alone increased its Underage Health sales from roughly $400,000 per week to over $1 million per week simply by recognizing this expanding market. Of course, they still produce Life and Med-Supp sales in volume too, but most importantly, they sell all three in multi-product, package formats.

Many in the Branch division are also taking advantage of these raging markets too. In Fort Wayne South, Teresa Pohler’s branch has been doing great things with the Underage Market. A large company with approximately 1,500 employees discontinued its health insurance benefits. Most of those affected were between the ages of 50 and 64. The Fort Wayne group scheduled a meeting with the employees where people waited up to two and half hours to speak with a UA representative. Afterwards, people were following Agents to their cars and writing checks in the parking lot. According to Ms. Pohler, “The words ‘guaranteed renewable’ never had so much meaning before as it did to those people and my Agents.” In Springfield, MO East, Jeff Miller’s branch wrote 41 percent of their total production for the second week in June in Underage Health. A new Agent to the branch wrote $7,612 AP her first week out, with 69 percent of that in Underage. Over in Jackson, Mississippi, Randy Byrd’s branch submitted $55,305. Of this 55K, approximately 50 percent was written in Underage Health. 

Why are these open-minded people successful in selling in both the Senior and Underage markets? 
THE ANSWER IS ONE WORD: PACKAGING. Important Note: When selling packaged products, keep in mind that it is essential customers understand they are purchasing separate policies at a combined price.

As you’ve seen, many of our Agents already successfully network among their senior customers for referrals to their families to write primary coverage for the uninsured, self employed, or supplementary packages on the millions of under-insured Americans who have had health coverage scaled back dramatically. Look: 94 percent of the packaged Underage Health premium sales total comes from a mix of only five products lately, sold in conjunction with one another — GSP1 or HSXC or SHXC(82.1%), SMXC (7.4%), and CANCER (4.5%), because they are sold as separate policies in a package format – and nearly all are sold with the RT-85 Life plan added too (20.1% of total production). Are the commissions per sale large? Yes, unbelievably huge. The smaller plans’ commissions add up fast when they’re sold in addition to a primary one. Shouldn’t you pick up these extra commission sales too, in the same Basic, Standard or Premium package benefit format? Wouldn’t more commissions per call be true in offering Life and LTC with your Med-Supps too? Ask your Branch Manager about these formats; he has many examples, sent recently. Best of all, many new branch lead programs also abound for Underage Health, and they are tried, tested, and true. UA has the right products for the Underage Health market, just like the Senior market, and our Underage products’ rates have long been extremely stable. Why don’t we recruit, train and write in all of UA’s product markets, along with the Senior market? While there are 46 million seniors, there are also 254 million younger people. These younger prospects are having coverage reduced and cancelled, or are simply being priced out of the market in record numbers, as Major-medical companies leave people with only UA’s options. Let’s pick up ALL of the money – all three $10,000 bills – with you and UA being the reasonably-priced primary or supplemental alternative on all of America’s 300 million prospects, senior and young alike!