Business executives have been presented with a tremendous challenge. They have learned in recent years that they must drastically change their spending habits in order to survive. When something has to change, it’s usually the employee-sponsored benefit package. Dropping benefits at least allows employers to stay in business. If they go bankrupt, employees lose both their jobs and their health benefits. If the employer drops only the benefit package, at least employees still have their jobs. Yet, employers want and need to find alternatives to offer their employees to retain them.

According to a recent survey by LIMRA, 79 percent of small businesses have never been contacted about voluntary worksite benefits. What are we waiting for? These uninsured, or in many cases underinsured, workers in small businesses offer massive potential for both Worksite and individual products. This will be a tremendous longterm market for us with improving persistency due to recent additions like FLEXguard to our health product line.

Although cost is a major factor in being uninsured, according to a report by the National Center for Policy Analysis, a non-profit public policy research institute, the fastest growing segment of the uninsured population is families with annual incomes of $75,000 or more – many lower income workers have already been priced out of coverage. Lack of insurance is now moving into the middle class and beyond. Many of these people are uninsured because their companies have dropped employee-sponsored coverage. Some cannot get coverage because of existing minor health conditions. Still, others are willing to take a chance that they stay healthy! The market potential for this economic group is tremendous!

But it’s not only underage workers who are losing employee-sponsored coverage. Retirees as well have been hit hard in recent years. According to Drew E. Altman, president of the Kaiser Family Foundation, “Prospects for retiree health coverage are slowly disappearing for America’s workers, and retirees who have it will be paying more.” A recent Kaiser survey showed that among larger employers only 36 percent offered retiree health benefits, down from 66 percent in 1988. This is a huge shift! In addition, 79 percent of the employers surveyed who still offered retiree coverage said they had increased premiums in 2004.

With Baby Boomers quickly approaching retirement age, the growth of the Senior population and potential prospects for our HDF policy is limitless. Back in the 70’s and 80’s before the days of lead programs and high-tech marketing, we sold our products by knocking on doors and going through phone books. Fortunately, times have changed. We can still do these things, but sophisticated lead programs, Senior seminars, and the Internet have enhanced the way we market and prospect for Medicare Supplement customers. A new Senior prospecting tool for UA is the Emergency Contact Card – see page 5 for details. These cards not only provide a valuable service to Seniors, but make it much easier for an Agent to make the initial contact with the Senior and follow up for the sales presentation. Getting in the door is always the biggest hurdle, and our Emergency Contact Cards solve that problem! In addition, these cards will make getting more referrals very easy, which will result in higher closing rates. What Senior wouldn’t want the Emergency Contact Card? Referrals are an implied endorsement of the Agent, the Company and the product.

With the opportunities FLEXguard and HDF provide us, just about everyone is a prospect! Whether uninsured or underinsured, these exciting products offer excellent alternatives to major medical and traditional Medicare Plan F. To make these products even more enticing to Agents, United American has sweetened the pot! We now offer new higher initial advance loans in standard states* for FLEXguard sales.

New higher initial advance loans in standard states are in place for HDF too, and routine monthly commissions have increased from 12% to 15%.

These are exciting times for United American, and the continued growth of the underage and Senior markets should keep it that way for many years to come. See page 8 for details on our current FLEXguard and HDF incentive contests, and put Australia on your itinerary!