Anthem Value Plus Vs. AARP United Health

newglarusman · 01-09-2009, 06:21 PM

Which is the better plan Anthem Value Plus with all available riders, A ded, B ded, HHC 365, Excess B and Foreign Travel, or United Health's AARP Medigap coverage? This is for ziip code 53521, female, 67 in good health, guaranteed acceptance.

retread · 01-09-2009, 06:25 PM

Originally Posted by newglarusman

Which is the better plan Anthem Value Plus with all available riders, A ded, B ded, HHC 365, Excess B and Foreign Travel, or United Health's AARP Medigap coverage? This is for ziip code 53521, female, 67 in good health, guaranteed acceptance.

I think one should do their own homework.

01-09-2009, 08:57 PM

Are you a licensed agent? If you are, shame on you for asking the forum to do your research. Another person out there not learning the ropes.
Ugh.
Do we split commission if we answer you?

newglarusman · 01-09-2009, 09:45 PM

Free advice is worth what you pay for it, but refusing to ask for it, or refusing to listen to it, is stupid pride.

azmedsupagent · 01-09-2009, 10:14 PM

Originally Posted by newglarusman

Free advice is worth what you pay for it, but refusing to ask for it, or refusing to listen to it, is stupid pride.

OOOOHHH NICE COMEBACK!!!

retread · 01-10-2009, 01:25 PM

Originally Posted by newglarusman

Free advice is worth what you pay for it, but refusing to ask for it, or refusing to listen to it, is stupid pride.

A better post would be, since plan A costs $x dollars from carrier **** and carrier #### has a similar plan for $y dollars, other than cost alone, are there any hidden costs I need to consider? .... or something to that effect.

Just asking what's the best plan for me to offer is asking others to do your research for you. We don't mind filling in some gaps, but you need to do the basic work.

newglarusman · 01-13-2009, 10:28 AM

I come here for unvarnished advice from experienced agents. I was able to open my own office, and start my own business as an independent agent, due to the advice I received on this page, thank you very much. There was one fellow in South Florida who advised me to sign up with Anthem to get my feet wet, and I just made my first sale with Anthem, and that customer came to me. I was looking for someone to give me their own analysis based on their experience with both companies. Anyway, I knew to ask the question and now I have the answer, for free, based on my experience: AARP United Health is probably a better long term plan financially, but Anthem has superior service. United Health has a past reputation for failure to pay claims, which they claim to have addressed. But, having spent more than a half-hour try to chase down a quote for my client, simply to offer an alternative to Anthem so she would have a real choice, and knowing my client's chief concern is no-hassle service, I decided her interests would best be served by going with a company she is comfortable with, that has a good service network and that doesn't take a half-hour to give an estimate on Medigap coverage for a client with guaranteed acceptance. United Health is also taking three weeks to process forms according to their own pre-recorded message; my experience with bureaucracies is you can doubt their service estimates comfortably, a problem for people who need their paperwork done quickly, as can happen.

Newby · 01-13-2009, 11:54 AM

Originally Posted by newglarusman

Which is the better plan Anthem Value Plus with all available riders, A ded, B ded, HHC 365, Excess B and Foreign Travel, or United Health's AARP Medigap coverage? This is for ziip code 53521, female, 67 in good health, guaranteed acceptance.

The question itself doesn't make sense. If someone is in good health...why do you want a guaranteed acceptance policy. As an agent you should know that "guaranteed acceptance" typically means it's for people who have been declined everywhere else due to health reasons.

It appears to me like you are comparing two Medicare Supplement policies which is unnecessary. Med Sups are standardized. Make sure you are comparing two of the same lettered plans (Plan D, Plan F, Plan J etc.) and they are apples to apples.

You should find an experienced agent in you area to work under for a year or so and learn the ropes. At a minimum, you should research this forum and the Medicare and You book.

newglarusman · 01-13-2009, 12:38 PM

In this case, it simply means that she has no breaks in coverage, can't be turned down, a slam dunk case. Standardized benefits are not standardized service, and that you don't know that indicates to me that perhaps you should work for a more experienced agent. Also, this is Medigap coverage, not A or B or f or anything else. Medigap covers excess charges on Medicare A and B, and other things like international health.

retread · 01-13-2009, 01:43 PM

Originally Posted by newglarusman

In this case, it simply means that she has no breaks in coverage, can't be turned down, a slam dunk case. Standardized benefits are not standardized service, and that you don't know that indicates to me that perhaps you should work for a more experienced agent. Also, this is Medigap coverage, not A or B or f or anything else. Medigap covers excess charges on Medicare A and B, and other things like international health.

Whoa, buddy... you are disclosing that you know very little about either the Medicare basics and /or Medigaps. There is a difference between PART A of Medicare and PLAN A (or F )Medicare Supplements. And international health? What are you talking about? Coverage when traveling out of the country? You need to go back to school....

The reply by Newby was meant to help you and you bit the hand trying to offer advice... you need to check your attitude if you want any more help on this forum.

Newby · 01-13-2009, 02:32 PM

"In this case, it simply means that she has no breaks in coverage, can't be turned down, a slam dunk case."

Wrong! It means you are putting someone that you've said was in good health in a plan intended for declined people. You would have her paying way too much if you do that. You make sure she has no breaks in coverage by co-ordinating the effective dates.

"Also, this is Medigap coverage, not A or B or f or anything else. Medigap covers excess charges on Medicare A and B, and other things like international health."

Wrong. Medigap plans ARE standardized with plan A through L. They are ALL the SAME.

From your answers I assume you are brand new and don't know any better. There is no crime in that. BUT, you should listen to people who try to help you. You can cause damage to the people you try to "slam dunk" when you mess with their Medicare coverage and you are not familiar with the most basic facts yet.

newglarusman · 01-13-2009, 04:40 PM

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Originally Posted by retread

Whoa, buddy... you are disclosing that you know very little about either the Medicare basics and /or Medigaps. There is a difference between PART A of Medicare and PLAN A (or F )Medicare Supplements. And international health? What are you talking about? Coverage when traveling out of the country? You need to go back to school....

The reply by Newby was meant to help you and you bit the hand trying to offer advice... you need to check your attitude if you want any more help on this forum.

Anthem offers international travel insurance with their Medigap coverage for a small extra fee, which is typical, so I don't know why you're surprised.
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Originally Posted by Newby

"In this case, it simply means that she has no breaks in coverage, can't be turned down, a slam dunk case."

Wrong! It means you are putting someone that you've said was in good health in a plan intended for declined people. You would have her paying way too much if you do that. You make sure she has no breaks in coverage by co-ordinating the effective dates.

"Also, this is Medigap coverage, not A or B or f or anything else. Medigap covers excess charges on Medicare A and B, and other things like international health."

Wrong. Medigap plans ARE standardized with plan A through L. They are ALL the SAME.

From your answers I assume you are brand new and don't know any better. There is no crime in that. BUT, you should listen to people who try to help you. You can cause damage to the people you try to "slam dunk" when you mess with their Medicare coverage and you are not familiar with the most basic facts yet.

You are engaged in selective quoting and distortion, which would concern me if I were your client. I said service, meaning customer service is not standardized, not benefits. Since you don't know that, it means you did not read and/or understand my post before you wrote your reply, which is ignorant.

retread · 01-13-2009, 05:08 PM

Originally Posted by newglarusman

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Anthem offers international travel insurance with their Medigap coverage for a small extra fee, which is typical, so I don't know why you're surprised.

This is the final straw! You don't know what you don't know. Your arrogance is not helping you to learn.

1) You are attempting to have us judge between two Med Sups and you do not provide us which plan for which carrier is under consideration. Carriers do not always carry all plans, and in order to compare one to the other one has to compare the same plan. You apparently don't know the difference between Medicare Part A and a Medigap Plan A, so how would you know this?

2) All Medigap plans that provide benefits in plans C thru J cover Foreign Travel Emergency. They do not charge "a small extra fee" for this, it is part of the policy quote for that plan, whichever it is.

3) "All available riders" is not the way Medigaps is discussed. We talk about which PLAN. Each PLAN covers certain benefits that have deductibles in listed benefits of Medicare PART A and/or PART B... which is the BASIC LIST OF BENEFITS that Medigaps connect with.

You are not properly trained. You are a danger to the public.

retread · 01-13-2009, 05:13 PM

Sorry about the double post.... I think something was going on with the site today.

(... or maybe I just popped a cork in my computer over this nonsense!)

newglarusman · 01-14-2009, 12:15 PM

Originally Posted by retread

This is the final straw! You don't know what you don't know. Your arrogance is not helping you to learn.

1) You are attempting to have us judge between two Med Sups and you do not provide us which plan for which carrier is under consideration. Carriers do not always carry all plans, and in order to compare one to the other one has to compare the same plan. You apparently don't know the difference between Medicare Part A and a Medigap Plan A, so how would you know this?

2) All Medigap plans that provide benefits in plans C thru J cover Foreign Travel Emergency. They do not charge "a small extra fee" for this, it is part of the policy quote for that plan, whichever it is.

3) "All available riders" is not the way Medigaps is discussed. We talk about which PLAN. Each PLAN covers certain benefits that have deductibles in listed benefits of Medicare PART A and/or PART B... which is the BASIC LIST OF BENEFITS that Medigaps connect with.

You are not properly trained. You are a danger to the public.

You are apparently unfamiliar with Anthem's Value Plus Plan, which has International Health as a rider, not as part of primary plan. But maybe you're just unfamiliar ;with Anthem. I mean I have the paperwork right in front of me, there it is, Foreign Travel rider.

My client picked her particular Medigap coverage through the government Medicare website I signed her up for; in addition, there was a third party review of her coverage by a party with no financial interest here, and this is what they recommended for her.

At least some of what you said in this post is informative and correct, but not all of it certainly, and some of your statements exceed your grasp. That I am a danger to the public, when I came here looking for focused and objectively correct information from experienced agents as I worked through this, is I think an overreaction on your part. I am an inexperienced agent, (which my client well knew), trying to do his due diligence, but find that some here have attempted to derail those efforts by pretending to know more than they know. That is a danger to the public, and the kind of practice which has insurance salesman lower on the totem pole than used car salesmen, or women. I guess all your clients better hope they don't need optional foreign travel coverage while you're busy assuming it's already included. Better raise your E&O coverage.

Luckily, my client knows more about insurance than either one of us and knew what she wanted. Thank you at least for the parts of your statements which are correct, I recognized them immediately and only wish you had stuck to discussing what you know, rather than pretending to know more than you do just to put the thumb on another agent and be such a drag. Good luck.

captain94 · 01-14-2009, 12:38 PM

Medigap plans C,D,E,F,G,H,I,J all have Forein Travel Emergency in the plans regadless of the company I have never seen a medigap plan with riders on it to add coverage. you can sell additional coverage with indemtity plans but thats all.

Russ · 01-14-2009, 12:40 PM

I noticed the Anthem Value Plus Plan, when I google searched it the other day..http://www.anthem.com/visitor/wi/f3/...w_ad091525.pdf

First I had ever heard of it. Being I don't write in Wisconsin, I stayed out of this discussion(until now). Maybe the agents that had posted on this thread were like me and not familiar with an apparent non-standardized plan. I was rather surprised to see it. I thought all med-supps. in all states were standardized.

retread · 01-14-2009, 03:18 PM

Originally Posted by Russ

I noticed the Anthem Value Plus Plan, when I google searched it the other day..http://www.anthem.com/visitor/wi/f3/...w_ad091525.pdf

First I had ever heard of it. Being I don't write in Wisconsin, I stayed out of this discussion(until now). Maybe the agents that had posted on this thread were like me and not familiar with an apparent non-standardized plan. I was rather surprised to see it. I thought all med-supps. in all states were standardized.

Yeah... the guy suckered us into thinking he was talking about South Florida when he began discussing his issue. He did provide the zip, but never once mentioned the state. If he had provided the name of the state he was writing in, it would have been a big flag. Apparently he is so new that he doesn't know that WI, MN, and MA are the only odd-balls in the Medigap market.

It follows that when someone asks for others to do their research for them, the fact that they don't even provide adequate data confirms an assumption that others should just give everything to him on a silver platter.

Let him find someone from WI to help him (if he can).