The Dallas News is reporting that UICI chairman Ronald Jensen was killed in an auto accident last week.
(this post was written way on on Thursday, September 15th, 2005)
Mr. Jensen made a fortune (and his company still does) steering tens of thousands of innocent business owners into believing they are getting high quality insurance with Mega life and health.
The sales force for the National Association for the Self Employed has made a lot of money, selling what many consider to be a poor substitute for traditional health insurance.
Although I sold the product in Oregon during late 2002 and early 2003, these aren’t just my opinions, either. Here is a forum thread with many of those peoples opinions. and here’s a long list of the crap that Mega has pulled
Since it’s technically legal, the NASE / Mega juggernaut cannot be stopped. The salespeople making thousands of dollars each week are, in my opinion, easily blinded to the illegitimacy of Mega’s policy, because the Mega policy is not even reviewed in their own agent training. I know this because I asked on three separate occasions, “When will we be reviewing our own policy?” and in my months there, we never did, not even once.
Only the competitor policies were discussed and torn apart. Since every policy has limitations, the competition is easily torn down, without ever even examining their own policy.
However, some states are catching on. Calling it “health insurance” at all was apparently too big of a stretch for Washington State, who in 2004 forbid sales of their products altogether. At this point in 2005, I guess they’re back again in Washington.
Always be sure to ask anyone that sells you any health insurance this question… “What’s the maximum out of pocket for a calendar year, including my deductibles?”
( Comments are closed on this thread – but consumers and NASE agents are still voicing their opinions here).
(*note added 2007 – this blog entry was posted in Aug ’05, and has taken on a life of it’s own. It’s amazing how many people are wary of Mega) -
Today, someone emailed me and asked me this -
Obviously I noticed your posting on megainsurance.
Would you please tell me your experiences? I am in a financial hole, and am scheduled to attend their training real soon. I really appreciate your help!!
Thanks again,
Jeff
Here’s my answer -
(*at that time – Based on the fact that I had sold Mega policies in Oregon)
Well Jeff, here’s the scoop. Playing the odds for most people, the insurance is not really that bad. BUT, just knowing theres the tiniest possibility that someone you sold to, (or worse yet, someone you know & love), actually does develop diabetes, or needs an organ transplant, or develops any cancer, or anything really bad, and you won’t sleep at night unless you stick your head in the sand.
On Mega Life and Health, there’s no “maximum out of pocket”. That’s the key ingredient missing. 80/20 on a $75k hospital stay, after your $5,000 deductible can set you back 20 grand or more! And if it’s a quarter million or more incident? forget it, you’re bankrupt.
Take a Mega health policy to your current (or any) competent agent and ask them what’s wrong with it. If only I had done that first! You know, I actually asked for one over and over, and never did get one to look at until my own came in the mail. By that point, I was selling it and making money, so who cared?
To have saved some families a few bucks a month, but knowing it could cost them $55,000 on a $90,000 hospital bill is horrible. The only consolation was that once people found out how it worked, they left. I’m so glad none of them kept it very long…
None of my customers ever called me like that, but I saw two good sales people get devastated by calls like that and leave in two months, right after I was the “Rookie of the year” in my district. As soon as I learned what we were really selling, I just quit producing. Then I was dead weight for a few weeks and finally left.
Those that are successful actually believe the product is as good as anything else out there, and that all insurance has limits. Well, that’s true, and playing the odds, this insurance is not that bad. 90% of all hospital bills are still under $50k . That’s not a chance I was willing to take.
The thing is, I think they just don’t know what they’re really selling and they don’t know the competition. They only know what they’re told, because none of them was in the insurance business before.
It wasn’t until I went to a general agency for 4 months that I saw how REALLY full of other holes Mega was. Plus, I had been made to look stupid. ..That was the final straw.
I had to stand there while a customer called their insurance company and proved me wrong, calling me a liar. I was told many times that “Fortis doesn’t cover you for injury on the job if you’re self employed” and that was a big selling point for business owners. I always mentioned that sentence in my sales pitch because people were shocked.
Today, I’m with Fortis for coverage that’s tons better, 6 million limit, and has a $2500 per incident 100% accident rider, and a maximum out of pocket of $8000 in any calendar year! That’s even for a heart transplant! It’s amazing what you learn selling insurance…
At Mega, when a client got hammered, the bosses would just say “Well Scott, all insurance has limits. The facts and coverage are laid out for the customer to read, and they could have canceled before she had a stroke and lost their home…”
Well that’s true, and that’s why it’s a legal business, but that doesn’t make it right.
Here’s a long list of the crap that Mega has pulled and why so many people hate them. Decide for yourself.
I really hated the insurance business anyway.
* Update 2007 -
To be clear, I have not been a Mega agent since 2003. I’m an internet marketer, and I I do make a couple of bucks if you get a quote for your zip code at Ehealthinsurance
