Private health insurance and the National Health Care Bill part 2

November 29, 2009 By Leave a Comment

The author, Ted Wolk, has over 30 years experience in the life and health insurance industry, looks at the National Health Care Bill and shares his thoughts on the core problems related to this Issue. PART 2

So who is really at fault for higher premiums?

Is it really the health insurance company’s fault that premiums have gone sky high?

Let’s look at the real business world and not the fantasy world. Health Insurance premiums rates are based on claims and morbidity rates, in other words, hard undisputed realistic data. Life insurance companies use mortality tables and health insurance companies use morbidity tables. These are very accurate actuarial tables, actuarial tables that are built on proven and scientific data.

However, when you continue to throw in unknown variables such as increasing malpractice claims, fraud, illegal claims, double billing, etc., it throws everything out of whack, so unless these issues are brought under control, how will you ever be able to lower or get health insurance costs under control? You never will.

What do insurance companies really do?

Insurance companies only pay claims that are submitted to them by the clients, patients and the doctors and hospitals. They have no control of these claims. Let me say that once more. Insurance companies only pay claims.

What do I mean by no control?

As an example, they have no control of all the malpractice claims that they must pay. They have to pay out all the large malpractice claims that are allowed under our current laws. Insurance Companies have no control of these claims or the amounts, or when they will have to be paid.

And because they have to dish out money for malpractice claims, they have to raise the rates for doctor’s malpractice insurance and guess what, the doctors then pass these increases along to you. It adds to their overhead and expenses. This then results in a pass through expense to your health insurance company, thereby raising your premiums. (Remember 100 cents in a dollar)

So in reality, both of these factions, (insurance companies) and (doctors/hospitals) are in a catch 22 situation – no win situation.

So again, I ask, how does it become the insurance companies fault if they have to raise rates to make ends meet at the end of every year, when they have no control of issues like this?

Who gets the Bad press for trying to keep insurance premiums down?

Insurance companies that want to keep the costs down always  end up getting bad press when they will pay only so much for certain procedures. Why? Because those payments are based on actuarial tables or on sound business principles.  No one ever seems to jump on the hospitals and doctors. It is always the insurance companies fault. Why is that? Because most people don’t know what type of coverage they really have till they are in the hospital. (Note: It would b nice if insurance companies could get rid of all that small print, but that won’t happen till all these lawsuits gets under control.

See Part 3 on the National Health Care Bill

See Part 1 on the National Health Care Bill

Filed Under: Health Insurance, Insurance, Life Insurance Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Ted Wolk shares his opinion on private health insurance and the National Health Care Bill

November 28, 2009 By Leave a Comment

The author, Ted Wolk, has over 30 years experience in the life and health insurance industry, looks at the National Health Care Bill and shares his thoughts on the core problems related to this Issue. PART 1

National Health Insurance

To quote Margret Thatcher “socialism is a great idea till you run out of other people’s money.”

Statements from Washington like “Pass the bill today and we will fix it later” scare the daylights out of me and reflect the mentality of how our leaders solve problems.

Yes there needs to be changes in health care delivery, however our politicians are not approaching the problem in a business-like manner. They are ignoring the core of the real problems that have created our dilemma. They are doing this more to satisfy their own ego.  If this national health concept is suppose to be such a great idea, then why are they forcing it down our throats and then telling us if we don’t want to play their game, we are going to fine you, penalize you, etc. “ (Free Choice!!!!”Was that a privilege we once enjoyed?)

Let’s examine some of the underlying core problems we have with this health care reform bill being discussed.

But before we move forward, we need to understand some basic and simple economics:

So let’s go to Economic Class 101>>>>.Here is Lesson number one—Please write this down in your notebook.  “There is only 100 cents in a dollar.” Yup, that’s what I said, there is only 100 cents in a dollar, and I know it is hard to believe. If there is anyone out there that can dispute this fact, please let me know. So let’s please keep this fact in mind as we continue on, unlike the people in Washington who totally ignore this basis fact.

Many people continue to badmouth the health insurance companies

Certainly the big issue today is the high cost of health insurance, and the fact that people cannot afford it, which results in so many uninsured. But are the health insurance companies really creating the problems we have today. The answer is no.  Our politicians seem to want to ignore the core issues of this dilemma. Slapping a band aid on the real problems is not a solution. So let’s take an in depth look at the health insurance companies and why our health insurance premiums have gone up. Just so everyone knows the increasing premiums are not created by some CEO that felt like raising the rates.

Insurance companies are only the messenger

Personally, I think we need to quit putting all the blame on the health insurance companies. They are only the messenger. The message they are delivering (higher premiums) is because of all the other problems in our health delivery system and our society.  Those core problems should be addressed first, before we start talking about any national health care.

See Part 2 on the National Health Care Bill

Filed Under: Health Insurance, Insurance, Life Insurance Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Annuity Insurance Leads Can Really Help Jump Start Your Insurance Business

November 8, 2009 By 4 Comments

Using the internet to help you obtain annuity insurance leads is one of the best ways to help jump start your insurance business. If you plan to use annuity insurance leads to jump-start your business it is important to learn how to get the leads and how to properly use them.

One of the first things that you need to do when obtaining annuity insurance leads is to make sure you are getting exclusive insurance leads. If the leads are not considered exclusive then you will be competing with a lot of other ins. business, so you will not get the jump-start you are looking for. When you obtain exclusive leads, you are paying for leads that no other ins. company is going to get. Purchasing these leads gives you a chance to obtain the business of these customers before somebody else has the chance too. When purchasing annuity leads to help jump start your business you will need to make the decision if spending the money is worth it or if you should go about generating your own annuity insurance leads.

Before you start to use annuity leads that you have purchased you need to make sure that they are worth the expense by doing the basic math. To figure out if it is worth purchasing the annuity leads to help jump start your ins. business you need figure out how many leads you are buying and how much they cost per lead. You also need to determine how much you make per new client and plus how many leads you successfully close. Look at the numbers and figure out what adjustments you can make to help improve the number of leads that you are closing so you can get the most out of your money.

If you plan to generate your own annuity insurance leads, the first thing you will need to do is create a website for your insurance business. You will want to create an engaging landing page so that when people get to your website they are enticed to stay. To get the people to visit your website you will need to have a solid internet marketing plan in place to help draw people to your website, placing ads on other websites is a good start to gain traffic.

Another way to draw traffic to your website is to offer affordable auto insurance along with annuity insurance and other types of ins. As auto insurance discounters, you can draw customers to your website because you can offer great rates on auto ine. You can also help draw people to your website by becoming an auto insurance specialist. Once the people come to find out about the auto insurance savings they often ask about other types of ins that you offer, which is known as up selling. By advertising yourself as an auto insurance specialist, you are gaining a competitive advantage for your insurance business because you can increase the amount of leads that you successfully close.

The one thing to remember is that your annuity insurance leads need to include all types of insurance, not just annuity insurance or auto insurance. You also need to remember that even if you are getting exclusive leads from a reputable lead provider chances are they are not going to be exclusive because the customer is likely to shop at different sites to help compare rates, so be sure to follow through on the lead immediately.

Filed Under: Auto Insurance, Insurance, Leads Tagged With: , , , ,
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