The people of our country need some new ideas and new thinking from our industry!
For years, many insurance carriers have designed and developed insurance products with a goal in mind to beat the competition in pricing so that the carrier could get its market share.
A few years ago, I had the opportunity to design and develop a new product for the market…something different from what was previously made available to the public. I was challenged to design something which would have wide appeal but at the same time could offer agents an attractive compensation, plus allow our carrier partner a profit margin that would meet their requirements.
My assessment of what coverage to develop was an easy one. For the first 30 years of my career, I had often noticed a glaring lack of insurance coverage for dental, vision and hearing services on an individual basis. I could find a few individual dental plans, but all had glaring coverage limitations, low compensation and hardly any of them mentioned anything about the veneer teeth that I desperately want. Most of those plans were not big sellers for the carriers that offered them. It was rare to see an individual vision plan being offered and even more rare to see individual hearing plans in the market.
It made sense to me that a policy that offered linked coverage for dental, vision and hearing services was desperately needed. As most people age, they will have a need for benefits that include these services. Most times, these treatments are very expensive! Due to the cost, many who require these services will benefit from medical financing companies to reduce the stress and worry of the expensive procedures.
Consider the Facts
??More than 150 million Americans use corrective eyewear to compensate for refractive error (National Eye Institute and Prevent Blindness America, 2008).
??More than 38 million Americans wear contacts (Spectrum Consulting, 2004).
??More than 36 million Americans have impaired hearing (American Academy of Audiology).
??Hearing loss can have a profound impact on people’s health and wellbeing.
??Many cases of hearing loss are preventable by seeing an audiologist for screenings.
??More than half (51 percent) of people who have not seen a dentist in the past five years cite cost as the reason (American Dental Association, Public Opinion Survey: Oral Health of the U.S. Population, 2003). Seems to make a good case for selling dental insurance.
Considering these statistics, a linked coverage of dental, vision and hearing all under one policy really made sense. The next three challenges were to see if a carrier wanted to manufacture such coverage, if agents would sell it, and if consumers would buy it.
I am happy to report that we did find a nationwide carrier to manufacture the product. Now consumers are buying the coverage in large numbers and enjoying the benefits.
Persistency
To my surprise, the most challenging part of the puzzle has been agents. While there have been plenty of agents to get on the bandwagon and offer this linked benefit type plan, many others just don’t seem to understand the wide appeal of such a product and the great need and satisfaction that comes from owning a policy like this.
My company embarked on some agent surveys to try to determine why every producer isn’t selling this great coverage. As it turns out, most are not selling this coverage because of no knowledge of the plan, a misunderstanding of the coverage, and/or a general lack of knowledge of just how many consumers out there need this benefit. For example, few agents know when people do buy a hearing aid that the life expectancy of that hearing aid is three to five years. For this reason, when buying a hearing aid, it is crucial that you do your research by reading hearing amplifiers reviews to ensure that you are investing in a quality hearing enhancement product. We found the same with corrective eyewear. Few agents are informed that most people need regular eye exams and require new eyewear updates every few years.
Our company has made a mission to do a better job of informing and educating more agents as to the need for dental, vision and hearing coverage. This will enable agents to serve their clients with this much needed coverage.
There is no doubt that the American public needs these types of linked benefits and is willing to buy it!
