Complaint Review: NASE - Cornerstone - MEGA Life

To those who decide to post comments about my experience in this business without remotely trying to understand it, I can offer the following comments. Don't criticize anyone else until you have walked a mile in their shoes. You have absolutely no understanding of the situations I have been in and are making false assumptions based on nothing.

First of all when I was managing agents, those agents were full time career agents who were W-2 employees of the company, not independent contractors who come and go at a whim. It wasn't a pyramid type of orgainzation that is so prevalent in the business today (most of them will eventually collapse and I have seen many collapse already). Second, the company had a guaranteed training salary, a structured comprehensive training program and offered excellent employee benefits. The company wouldn't just hire anyone who could pass a license exam and had a pulse (like many companies today). Also when I was in management, I was a full time manager with no personal production requirement. I was paid based on the performance of my sales staff.

I left that company more then twenty years ago when the company became an ethical cesspool. I couldn't tolerate the shenanigans going on in the company so I left. Within ten years after leaving that company, they had to pay fines and restitution of more then two billiion dollars. Obviously none of the agents I managed were with that company much longer after I left. In fact one of them still has a successful independent insurance business to this day. Another is retired and started a prison ministry (maybe he saw some of the former managers from that company in his second job).

I have seen clones of NASE come and go over the past twenty years. I even worked for some briefly and according to the B.S. they spouted, by being succesful with them I would retire wealthy within ten years (there is also a bridge in New York I want to sell you). So why aren't those same organizations still in business? Why do I run across former managers from those orgainzations selling used cars now? Gee they should be comfortably retired by now.

When I started in the insurance business in 1977, the manager that hired me told me about the "mother test". What that meant was that don't sell anything to anyone else unless you would sell the same product to your mother if she qualified and had the need. Too many health insurance sales agents "cut and run" by selling the policy, then never showing their face back in the business or home again. If you cannot feel good by walking back in that client's home or business at a later date and asking for referrals, then you have no business selling that product. I have had many clients give me many referrals that I have also sold the same product.

Organizations like NASE and Mega Life want their reps to sell only their product and nothing else. They want them to be dependent on the leads they supply so you become a lead junkie. Referrals are the life blood of the insurance business and if you know how to find your own leads or obtain quality referrals, then you no longer need the leads they supply and you surely don't need the managers.

When I began in the insurance business, I replaced a rep who retired after 34 years with the company. Five years later when I became a sales manager, I had a staff of eight that included four twenty year veterans with the company. When I was a rookie agent, I was selling policies to the fourth generation in that family and there were whole city blocks where everyone on the block had a policy with that company somewhere. With that kind of loyalty and penetration, the company had to be doing something right. Today you can't even find an agent with that company. If I could have stayed with that company (and if the company had stayed in business), I could have retired from them four years ago. That is what happens when a company forgets about ethics.

I talk to young agents and when I tell them we had a guaranteed training salary, an excellent company paid health insurance plan, a defined benefit retirement plan, excellent group life and disability benefits and an investment plan that included a company match, they find that hard to believe. Then I tell them that many agents stayed with the company for thirty years or longer. That company invested a lot of money in their agents and were rewarded handsomely with loyalty and long service. Today if you want loyalty, get a puppy dog. Yes, this business ain't what it used to be.

Managers of offices generally don't understand what happens in the field. I own my own business and the math don't add up. If you have been in he business for 30 years and your retention rate of employees is 60% on average for a LARGE insurance company your should have hundreds working for you. And be DEFINITLY RETIRED. How come you don't mention the name of the company You work FOR?
Do they have complaints of there own on this site? The answer is yes they do.
I looked at every insurance company listed with the great state of Texas DOI and they all have sob stories from people on this site. I have Cancer and mega has done everything it said it would in writing. But then again I have an agent that
asked me a lot of questions 5 years ago. And he's still my agent today.
Buy the way.Down here in Texas I'm Uninsurable now because of cancer and they
haven't dropped me, refused to pay, or had any input on my treatments.

Isn't A HSA An HEALTH SAVINGS ACCOUNT? So YOU have to pay you premiums
plus aditional funds into an account? If a family of 4 premiums $ 400 a month
then you have to put $5000 in the fund you just had to pay $9800 a year for coverage. Is that correct? And there is still a deductable? And HSA dont have a stop loss. They do have one family deductable per year. But if you dont get sick do you still have to pay the moneys to the savings acct?

Isn't A HSA An HEALTH SAVINGS ACCOUNT? So YOU have to pay you premiums
plus aditional funds into an account? If a family of 4 premiums $ 400 a month
then you have to put $5000 in the fund you just had to pay $9800 a year for coverage. Is that correct? And there is still a deductable? And HSA dont have a stop loss. They do have one family deductable per year. But if you dont get sick do you still have to pay the moneys to the savings acct?

Isn't A HSA An HEALTH SAVINGS ACCOUNT? So YOU have to pay you premiums
plus aditional funds into an account? If a family of 4 premiums $ 400 a month
then you have to put $5000 in the fund you just had to pay $9800 a year for coverage. Is that correct? And there is still a deductable? And HSA dont have a stop loss. They do have one family deductable per year. But if you dont get sick do you still have to pay the moneys to the savings acct?

Isn't A HSA An HEALTH SAVINGS ACCOUNT? So YOU have to pay you premiums
plus aditional funds into an account? If a family of 4 premiums $ 400 a month
then you have to put $5000 in the fund you just had to pay $9800 a year for coverage. Is that correct? And there is still a deductable? And HSA dont have a stop loss. They do have one family deductable per year. But if you dont get sick do you still have to pay the moneys to the savings acct?

I really resent the previous poster's comments regarding my experience in the insurance business. I should be retired now but I worked for a large insurance company where I once managed two field offices and as many as thirteen sales agents. One of those offices was ranked in the top 25% of the company and I was also one of their top producers. Unfortunatly that company no longer exists because of the shenanigans from their top executives.

I have been selling health insurance for more than thirty years and have seen a lot of garbage plans come and go out there. I have also seen the sales pitch given by agents of NASE and Mega Life and have also read some of their policies. The reps bamboozle a small business owner with all the side benefits of NASE and gloss over the health insurance policy details then go for a one call close. Most of the time, the sales rep never sets foot back in that business again. Instead they go from one sale to the next.

The life blood of this business is to build a clientele that will be repeat buyers of other products and give quality referrals. Most NASE reps I have met are lead junkies and when I worked for a NASE clone briefly about ten years ago, they threatened to fire me because I wanted to cross sell other lines (life and disability) to clients.

Health (or any kind) insurance) is nothing more than a set of promises on a piece of paper. You are nothing more than your own reputation and integrity along with the reputation and integrity of the companies you represent.

Why I call myself "disillusioned" is the fact that so many in the insurance business are blinded by the bright lights of commissions and don't realize that fact. I have had two of my managers lose their licenses over ethical violations. I have also been an officer in the local professional association as well as having taught many classes in the insurance business. I have trained many successful insurance agents and had 60% of the reps I hired and trained still working for me after two years. Some of the people I have met in this business today I wouldn't hire on a "double dog dare".

Then explain this:

delawareinsurance.gov/departments/news/101007-Press-MegaLifeHealthFined.shtml

boston.com/business/globe/articles/2006/10/24/ag_sues_low_cost_health_insurer_on_practices/

Been in the business for over 30 years. If you started at 20 that would make you 50 plus. I find that hard to believe with a name like Disillusioned. I have only been in the insurance business for 12 years and fixing to retire. If you have been doing it for 30, you must be doing something wrong or just plain out lying.

Let me help you, the #1 thing you are doing wrong is slinging mud all over your competitors. The only thing that does is make you look bad. I am a broker and I have MEGA insurance. I was not able to qualify for an individual plan due to my high blood pressure. I have a signature benefit plan through MEGA that I purchased 8 years ago and had a heart attack 2 years ago. After my deductible, the plan paid 100% and I recieved an extra $1200 in cash from NASE for the 6 days I was in the hospital.

You may be able to fool an ignorant client by bashing your competitors, but your looking like an idiot to us licensed agents. You are also the type of agent that makes us look like used car sales people when our true intentions are to help them. Get a life and Focus on the good carriers that you have and let the client make an informed decision. I doubt MEGA has been in business for over 25 years by not paying claims. I have viewed the states department of insurance and the complaint index is not in BCBS, Unicare, Aetna, Assurant or Cigna's favor. It actually shows that MEGA is keeping the majority of their clients happy. I have had some rate increases, but nothing more than the industry norm. The practices you are using is most likely why you have been doing this for 30 years, apparently none of your clients stay on the books.

I was an agent with Mega Life and Health for about 8 months. I was really excited about the opportunity to "help" people with affordable health insurance, but found it difficult to sell a product I was not sure about. I struggled with this "doubt", but thought, maybe, my doubts were just coming from my inexperience in the insurance industry. As the months went by, I slowly figured out that the rates with Mega were just as expensive as BCBS. The one thing about Mega's hopspital deductible that I thought was rather "odd", was the fact that the deductible was NOT a calendar year deductible, but rather a deductible "per occurrence". This just sounded goofy to me.... and was never REALLY explained in training. One positive note I will add, is that the support from other agents was wonderful... and I really thought if I gave this opportunity more time, things would finally settle down for me; however, when HealthMarkets launched "Care Advantage" which is a Medicare Advantage program, things just got worse. I worked SO hard to set up seminars to market this product, then we were told to cancel the seminars because we needed more training. I finally just had to cut my losses and move on.
I am not saying that Mega is a horrible company. It just was not the company for me. I do not like marketing products that are full of ambiguities; therefore, I am no longer an agent.
One last comment...
I find it rather suspicious that this website seems to be "monitored" by Mega agents in order to dispute any negative comments. That, in itself, should tell the consumer something.

When I was down in Texas at the 'home office' for a ra ra session for making senior agent and winning quick start...

we asked them what about getting people off the scheduled plans... we were told that we cannot do that...

I wonder why that is so?

Yes, there is a plan underwritten by Mega that allows the client to strip the plan down to the point where they can afford something. The problem is that they expect it to pay for everything.....hence the complaint. People expect more out of health insurance than any other insurance product. Mix in a plan that has so many ways to cut things out of it and its a recipe for disaster.

I don't present that HCA anymore. By the time I build it to something that I may feel a little more comfortable about, it has surpassed the more comprehensive plans in premiums. It is for people who are taking risks. I have had many people who are all too willing to make a very bad decision on their health plans in order to save a few dollars. I don't let them. I've walked out on appointments because I refused to put my name on a plan that people have stripped to nothing because I know that no matter what I say, 10 minutes after I leave they will think they are fully covered.

For the same amount of money I can always give people more access to the outpatient things than your typical HSA type of plans. Sometimes we create a bit of exposure on the hospital side but never to a point where the insured will face a bill over 12000. I always include a rider that pays at least 10000 cash benefit for a critical illness. I help my clients to come to a reasonable level of exposure and build from there until they've reached their financial ceilings, if we get something they like before hitting that limit then its even better.

I'm tired of you brokers painting with broad brushes. There are good plans available through the NASE.

Yes, there is a plan underwritten by Mega that allows the client to strip the plan down to the point where they can afford something. The problem is that they expect it to pay for everything.....hence the complaint. People expect more out of health insurance than any other insurance product. Mix in a plan that has so many ways to cut things out of it and its a recipe for disaster.

I don't present that HCA anymore. By the time I build it to something that I may feel a little more comfortable about, it has surpassed the more comprehensive plans in premiums. It is for people who are taking risks. I have had many people who are all too willing to make a very bad decision on their health plans in order to save a few dollars. I don't let them. I've walked out on appointments because I refused to put my name on a plan that people have stripped to nothing because I know that no matter what I say, 10 minutes after I leave they will think they are fully covered.

For the same amount of money I can always give people more access to the outpatient things than your typical HSA type of plans. Sometimes we create a bit of exposure on the hospital side but never to a point where the insured will face a bill over 12000. I always include a rider that pays at least 10000 cash benefit for a critical illness. I help my clients to come to a reasonable level of exposure and build from there until they've reached their financial ceilings, if we get something they like before hitting that limit then its even better.

I'm tired of you brokers painting with broad brushes. There are good plans available through the NASE.

Take off those rose colored glasses and wake up. Check out your state's insurance department complaint file for consumer complaints against health insurance companies and most likely you will see Mega Life leading the pack in the number of consumer complaints. Also check out the article that recently appeared in USA Today a few weeks ago highly critical about NASE and Mega Life.

I am not naive enough to realize that there is no such thing as a truly "100% coverage" policy and I do propose and sell a plan that does pay 100% of charges in network after a high deductible as part of an HSA plan. The deductible is $2700 individual and $5400 for couples and families. It is competetively priced and the clients know exactly what they have. This isn't for everyone, but if someone is interested in a good HSA plan with competetive rates, this fills the bill.

What I am critical of are agents representing NASE and Mega Life touting a "100% coverage" health insurance plan that only pays 100% up to their schedule and very often leaves a lot of medical expenses on the back of the patient. Very often they don't realize this until they file a large claim (and then it is too late to do anything about it) or someone like myself comes in and asks them to actually read their policy.

I am sick of agents like yourself that continue to post on this site. I am not only an agent but also a customer of Mega Life and Health. Mega offers several different types of health plans from Scheduled benefit to comprehensive catostrophic ppo with maximum out of pocket. Saying on here that "agents" tell consumers they have 100% coverage is, in my opinion, not only rediculous bt also discredits the consumer. I know of know one that would believe there is a private health insurance plan that pays 100% of their medical bills. Mega pays claims exactly to the plans provisions Bottom line. Mega is a good company and to say that it is not because of an agent that may not handle their business properly again is rediculous.