Is theMedicareCoach a great deal at $1,297?

[Newby]

I had just never heard of anything like this before. I cannot believe those vultures even exist and that people are gullible enough to pay them money.

Any decent agent does the exact same thing and cost them zero.

 

[annon123]

I'm turning 65 this year. So my Facebook account is flooded with ads for Medicare pitchmen. But the most aggressive one is this lady from TheMedicareCoach.com that wants me to sit through one of her FREE webinars to learn all the traps I need to avoid when I make my Medicare decisions. She is VERY persistent and her main hook is that she is different because she's not an agent.

So I listen in to one. My first attempt I had to jump off after 1/2 hour because it was a full on sales pitch about her knowing more about Medicare than anyone else. More than agents because they just want a quick commission. More than the 1-800 Medicare people because they are too busy to care about you. More than the SHIP people because they just don't understand anything. Blah, blah, blah, …

But they wore me down again with all the ads. I had to see what her angle was. She just keeps pitching that she doesn't make any greedy commissions like agents do. So her information would be a lot better. So I commit to sit through the whole thing. And yesterday I finally did. It took two entire hours before she finally gets to the point. During that two hours she touches on all the normal topics just like any agent's presentation but acting like everything she says is stuff agents would NEVER tell you because they work on commission. Gasp!

Then at the end comes the real pitch. She gives us the opportunity to have a personal one on one call (up to 45 minutes) with her (or one of her trained associates) to sort out all of our Medicare decisions for the one time low low price of $1297.

You heard that right! For only $1297. I can get a 45 minute personalized phone conference with someone who doesn't work on commission to sort out my Medicare decisions. Wow! That sounds like a real bargain because she explained to me that if I make the wrong decision, it could cost me up to $8000 per year every single year and I will be trapped with my decisions forever and can never get out.

She did toss out there almost as a little side comment that the only form that they can't do for us is the actual enrollment form into an insurance plan. But that's the only thing that we will have to go off and do elsewhere.

She claims they have been doing this for 10 years and that they are one of the largest Medicare advisory companies in the nation and have enrolled, lots, lots of famous people, celebrities, athletes, and lay people all over the country.

Do you think anyone is actually falling for this stuff? Or is it just some new angle some one is trying out to see if they can pull it off? It's very polished and high dollar looking. I just can't believe all the ways that people come up with to separate seniors from their money. If this works, this might be the way of the future.

And if I signed up today during the webinar, I would actually get a 12 month review it actually no cost at all. And if we want to include my spouse at the same time, I can include them for only an additional $650. Wow!

Since she saturates her presentation with ads likely she makes good money from doing that.

 

[sshafran]

You say that like it is a bad thing . . .

Did you forget that many of the agents here, who actually write Medigap, do the same thing. Lowest premium wins! Entered the Medicare market this month? No problem . . . they are owned by Big Household Name carrier who is rated A+++++.

On another note . . . MedicareBabe.com seems to have modeled her pitch after the folks at 65 incorporated dot com

Largest percentage of my book is UHC. Biggest market share and good stability - they have documentation on rates, increases, etc.

But their 2024 and 2025 increases are higher than normal

Makes me think - it really just does not matter. They'll all go up no matter what. And we can't predict.

I have been telling people that the best and really only way to keep a low premium is to remain insurable. Picking a "good" carrier is helpful, but that assumes the "good" carrier will be good in 5 yrs.

That's the key. Remain insurable.

 

[Newby]

Largest percentage of my book is UHC. Biggest market share and good stability - they have documentation on rates, increases, etc.

But their 2024 and 2025 increases are higher than normal

Makes me think - it really just does not matter. They'll all go up no matter what. And we can't predict.

I have been telling people that the best and really only way to keep a low premium is to remain insurable. Picking a "good" carrier is helpful, but that assumes the "good" carrier will be good in 5 yrs.

That's the key. Remain insurable.

UHC has always had extra rate increases that they called a discount and took away a portion of their discount each year for 10 years. That's actually just a clever way of doing extra rate increases that never show up on the statistics.

 

[sshafran]

UHC has always had extra rate increases that they called a discount and took away a portion of their discount each year for 10 years. That's actually just a clever way of doing extra rate increases that never show up on the statistics.

Not really anything clever. At least not in my opinion.

That's like saying the attained age discount by MoO, Aetna, Cigna, etc is skewed because the age increases aren't factored (i.e. 73 is lower than 74).

UHC does the increase on the standard rate then an AARP discount is applied based on age.

In essence I think all carriers increases at whatever % are lower than what actually matters as people age (age increase + rate).

 

[goillini52]

Makes me think - it really just does not matter. They'll all go up no matter what. And we can't predict.

This.

 

[annon123]

UHC has always had extra rate increases that they called a discount and took away a portion of their discount each year for 10 years. That's actually just a clever way of doing extra rate increases that never show up on the statistics.

Actually for people who turned 65 in, I believe it was, 2022 they now get 15 years of a discount.

 

[annon123]

Not really anything clever. At least not in my opinion.

That's like saying the attained age discount by MoO, Aetna, Cigna, etc is skewed because the age increases aren't factored (i.e. 73 is lower than 74).

UHC does the increase on the standard rate then an AARP discount is applied based on age.

In essence I think all carriers increases at whatever % are lower than what actually matters as people age (age increase + rate).

Except, at least in my state, UHC supps are a community based risk pool. That should help keep rates down for people as they get a lot older. Of course due to the age related discounts the skews figuring out what people without the discounts are paying to subsidize that. I know they added the discounts to get more people to enroll for those who only look at premium costs. I'd suspect the rates are higher overall to account for that so that they can still claim they are giving an age related discount. Who knows. I'd doubt they'd give that information out to anyone outside of the company. In my state once the discount runs out the highest rate is $298/mo (for G+) until June 1 when rates go up (which is lower than many others and likely reflects the community based risk pool). I was also told they added G without the not so free "extras" to create a new pool of younger, less sick people (and only around 20% use the fitness extra, not sure about vision, dental, etc. so it would me more appealing to many). They are rolling that out in states over several years. I think that is available in about 10 states so far, including mine.

 

[Newby]

Not really anything clever. At least not in my opinion.

That's like saying the attained age discount by MoO, Aetna, Cigna, etc is skewed because the age increases aren't factored (i.e. 73 is lower than 74).

UHC does the increase on the standard rate then an AARP discount is applied based on age.

In essence I think all carriers increases at whatever % are lower than what actually matters as people age (age increase + rate).

Yes I guess so. All that matters is what is the amount you pay for now. And in a few years readjust if you are healthy enough to change. The two states I sell in now have the birthday rule now so that will really change things up.

 

[LostDollar]

That's the key. Remain insurable.

Not possible for many.