Selling Medicare insurance has been very straightforward for experienced Insurance agents. They need to figure out the particular strata of the population who will reach the age of 65. The challenge arises when the individuals turning 65 are not willing to retire. More citizens are trying to push back on retirement, which has made the Independent Insurance agents adapt to the changing scenario in the insurance industry. The Bureau of Labor Statistics is predicting the number of individuals who are 65 years old and older will make up for more than 21% of the workforce in the United States. This number has doubled from what it was about 30 years ago. If you want to advise medicare eligible employees working past 65, you need to keep reading.
Reasons for Seniors Delaying Retirement
Before you develop a strategy for Advising senior citizens, you need to understand why so many senior citizens are choosing to delay their retirement.
Maximum Social Security Benefits
The age of 65 does not yield the maximum social security benefits like it used to. The National Academy of Social Insurance claims that to receive maximum benefits, the age has to be 66 years and two months for people born in 1955. It gradually increases to 67 for the people born in 1960 or later. The senior citizens who can wait till 70 will receive 132% of what they would have received at the age of 65. The total retiree will be the same, but the difference lies in the monthly benefits. Monthly benefits increase if the Retirement age is delayed.
Lack of retirement savings
A very commonly found reason is that senior citizens lack savings for retirement. Lack of retirement is pushing senior citizens to work beyond 65. According to Vanguard, the median amount in the 401k account for people at the age of 65 is $22217. This is not sufficient to retire on as the average life expectancy has increased.
Seniors are just not ready to leave the workforce.
Many senior citizens have worked for decades to build their businesses and careers. It makes sense for them to stick to their workplace instead of leaving all they have worked for. They feel that their work provides them with meaning and purpose in life. As life expectancy is improving, so is the quality of life. Senior citizens have been healthier than ever before.
Collect all the necessary information
Every sales call and meeting regarding Medicare begins with collecting relevant information. Once you have all the standard information about your client, you can ask your client questions. It would help if you asked these questions:
- When are you planning to retire?
- How are employees there, in your company?
- What is your current employer’s health coverage? Are you satisfied with it?
- What do you pay in premiums, copay, coinsurance, and deductibles?
- What are your out-of-pocket costs with the current employer’s health coverage?
Provide them with Options
Once you have all the data necessary to solve their issue, You can start listing them with Medicare coverage options while they are trying to work. All the senior citizens have three options:
- Enroll in Medicare and drop their employer health coverage.
- Keep the employer’s health coverage and delay their enrollment in Medicare.
- Keep their employer health coverage and delay enrolling in the Medicare part B
In case your client’s company has less than 20 employees, it would be a very good option for them to enroll in Medicare when they are eligible for it. Some employers may not be offering employer health coverage once their employees are eligible for Medicare.
Try to explain the workings of Medicare with their current insurance.
It can depend on your client’s situation on whether they choose to enroll in Medicare or not. Explain how Medicare works with their current insurance. It will either have a primary or secondary payer, so it can be beneficial to clients to enroll in Part A while they are still working.
Explain to your client the process of Signing Up
The signing up process can be very confusing for some clients, so guide them through the process. Please explain how to contact the social security office and send the Medicare card back if it automatically arrives in the mail.
Once you have discussed all the necessary things, you can start talking about the Enrollment periods and late enrollment penalties which may apply. You should offer your services to help them transition to Medicare. Although the client may not want to enroll immediately, you can offer your services when they eventually choose to enroll in Medicare. Check on those clients periodically, and one day or another, you will close the deal.
