United American Insurance Agent and policy are worthless. Ripoff McKinney Texas

The first response I have an agree/dissagree with. Yes, once agents realize what they are selling then they should move on if they have any common sense. Most of the policies are not worth the paper they are written on. But I disagree with the statement about it being like a pyramid scheme. Most insurance companies out there are structured like that. You have a Branch Manager (or Regional manager) then down to Unit Managers (or Divisional) then down to District Managers then down to agents, give or take some positions in there. Some of the names of the positions might even be different. Nevertheless, most well known insurance companies are structured like this. I got a question for you....do you work at a job? Ok let's say you do. You have a manager right? Then he reports to his manager right? Then that guy reports to the head guy in charge/owner right? So what do you call that structure?

And as for the West Point graduate.....you are right in one sense about people who cant get coverage because of pre-existing conditions. Yeah UA will insure them up to the limited expenses they have in the policy (actually a reduction in benefits by 25% after the 180 day waiting period) But let's also look at the other side of this. If they got diabetes, for instance, then they probably will have another condition like high blood pressure. Ok so you have rate them up for both of those conditions. On the 50K Flex for a 50 year old male by himself will cost over $400 a month with very limited benefits. Why put them in that position? They can go to their states High Risk Pool Association and get a high deductible plan for the same amount. And it will pay 80% of all expenses after the deductible is met. And if you dont have that association then I would just tell them to save the money and pay for a visit out of their own pocket. They could get the same type of coverage with a $10/month discount saving card.

I do honor the fact though that you have not lied to them and told them that it is not the best coverage in the world. Most of the UA agents would not come out and say that. So at least your customer knows what he has. I worked there several years before I realized that when I have a few customers that had to file bankruptcy due to bills not paid for by the insurance company, then it was time to move on to something bigger and better.

The first response I have an agree/dissagree with. Yes, once agents realize what they are selling then they should move on if they have any common sense. Most of the policies are not worth the paper they are written on. But I disagree with the statement about it being like a pyramid scheme. Most insurance companies out there are structured like that. You have a Branch Manager (or Regional manager) then down to Unit Managers (or Divisional) then down to District Managers then down to agents, give or take some positions in there. Some of the names of the positions might even be different. Nevertheless, most well known insurance companies are structured like this. I got a question for you....do you work at a job? Ok let's say you do. You have a manager right? Then he reports to his manager right? Then that guy reports to the head guy in charge/owner right? So what do you call that structure?

And as for the West Point graduate.....you are right in one sense about people who cant get coverage because of pre-existing conditions. Yeah UA will insure them up to the limited expenses they have in the policy (actually a reduction in benefits by 25% after the 180 day waiting period) But let's also look at the other side of this. If they got diabetes, for instance, then they probably will have another condition like high blood pressure. Ok so you have rate them up for both of those conditions. On the 50K Flex for a 50 year old male by himself will cost over $400 a month with very limited benefits. Why put them in that position? They can go to their states High Risk Pool Association and get a high deductible plan for the same amount. And it will pay 80% of all expenses after the deductible is met. And if you dont have that association then I would just tell them to save the money and pay for a visit out of their own pocket. They could get the same type of coverage with a $10/month discount saving card.

I do honor the fact though that you have not lied to them and told them that it is not the best coverage in the world. Most of the UA agents would not come out and say that. So at least your customer knows what he has. I worked there several years before I realized that when I have a few customers that had to file bankruptcy due to bills not paid for by the insurance company, then it was time to move on to something bigger and better.

The first response I have an agree/dissagree with. Yes, once agents realize what they are selling then they should move on if they have any common sense. Most of the policies are not worth the paper they are written on. But I disagree with the statement about it being like a pyramid scheme. Most insurance companies out there are structured like that. You have a Branch Manager (or Regional manager) then down to Unit Managers (or Divisional) then down to District Managers then down to agents, give or take some positions in there. Some of the names of the positions might even be different. Nevertheless, most well known insurance companies are structured like this. I got a question for you....do you work at a job? Ok let's say you do. You have a manager right? Then he reports to his manager right? Then that guy reports to the head guy in charge/owner right? So what do you call that structure?

And as for the West Point graduate.....you are right in one sense about people who cant get coverage because of pre-existing conditions. Yeah UA will insure them up to the limited expenses they have in the policy (actually a reduction in benefits by 25% after the 180 day waiting period) But let's also look at the other side of this. If they got diabetes, for instance, then they probably will have another condition like high blood pressure. Ok so you have rate them up for both of those conditions. On the 50K Flex for a 50 year old male by himself will cost over $400 a month with very limited benefits. Why put them in that position? They can go to their states High Risk Pool Association and get a high deductible plan for the same amount. And it will pay 80% of all expenses after the deductible is met. And if you dont have that association then I would just tell them to save the money and pay for a visit out of their own pocket. They could get the same type of coverage with a $10/month discount saving card.

I do honor the fact though that you have not lied to them and told them that it is not the best coverage in the world. Most of the UA agents would not come out and say that. So at least your customer knows what he has. I worked there several years before I realized that when I have a few customers that had to file bankruptcy due to bills not paid for by the insurance company, then it was time to move on to something bigger and better.

I worked for United American for a few months. Training , if you want to call it that, is virtually nil. It is fast. An agent will sometimes go with a unit manager on some appointments. The main factor is to get the appointments.

I knew some agents who called the policies 80/20. I heard different reasons, but ultimately, I heard that agents should not use 80/20 as a selling point.

I always wondered why there were so many people selling the product. The location where I was was constantly recruiting. It seemed to me like a "cattle call"
or "assembly line marketing."

Some will do well with this company. Others will be like me, and have to determine if putting all your money (on expenses) for "let me compare" or "let me think it
over" is worth it.

There needed to be more mentoring and emphasis on retention, in my opinion.

Also, role playing and really understanding the policies. From what I understand, there were close to 40 different policies at UA. No wonder, people got
confused.

I think UA has a place in the marketplace, for the uninsured. However, I think there is too much confusion on the products. The agents, for the most part, do not understand them.

I heard one agent say it was his responsibility to sell, and the "claims" or "customer service" offices to interpret them.

Huh ?

I have another side to this story. I previously as of two days ago worked for the call center in the home office of McKinney, Texas. I would have call after call about "agents who lied to them, told them it was an 80/20 policy, told them it had maternity, etc." I can't personally say that yes, the agents are lying to them. I do however just know the amount of people who claim this. For the most part the customer just doesn't read the policy, and then they should be faulted. I also have countless reports of the insured not receiving the policy close to or after the "30 day Free Look", meaning their first month's premium is lost to them. So if a customer had received the policy in adequate time and just did not read it, then the company or even the agent would not be held accountable. I do disagree strongly with the policies being mailed to the agent first...personally the whole agent system is flawed as in case of the Medicare Supplement plans that United American sells as opposed to some of the identical plans through it's sister company Globe Life. Globe Life is direct mail, and all problems could be handled in the call center, making the policy cost significantly less than the agent sold United American policies, which would in turn attract more customers. All that the agents would do on this policy would be things actually done in our home office.

I'm an agent with United American; I've been working for UA for about 3 months.

UA does sell surgical policies; they exist for people with uninsurable conditions who can't get insurance anywhere else. That's not the bulk of what UA sells, but they are available. The OP here seems to have purchased one of them; he probably has Hepatitis C, has had an organ transplant, or some other debilitating condition that makes him a high risk for insurance.

Insurance companies do one of two things:

1. They won't insure you.
2. They will insure you, but write exclusionary riders for the conditions that they don't want to cover. For example, if you have Diabetes, they can write you a policy, but they'll write Diabetes out of it, so anything you need to have done related to Diabetes won't be covered.

United American offers an alternative - a surgical and inpatient benefit plan. Its cheap, and its not the greatest insurance. It covers you for basic benefits when you have to go to the hospital. In my time with UA, I've sold exactly one of these policies, and sold it to someone who was uninsurable by anyone else. I was quite frank with him, and told him that it wasn't very good insurance, but that it WAS an insurance card, which will get him in the door and seen in a hospital, and it will help pay for expenses. Given the cheap price...its a worthy investment for someone in his condition.
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Now, with all that said - if your experience with an agent, or having been an agent is such that you didn't feel like you were done right by, cancel your policy and you'll get a full refund. That's how insurance works.

But to the second poster, who thinks that UA takes advantage of high-school grads and uneducated people...just because YOU are unintelligent, incapable of making it in the world, and fit into your own stereotype doesn't mean that the rest of us do. Personally, I'm a West Point graduate, former Army officer, and I gave up a desk job making six figures in the civilian world to be an agent for United American because I see potential in my area, and I've come up with a couple of ideas to generate amazing amounts of business. I've never had an unhappy client. I've had one client call me back and complain that she thought she was getting dental insurance...somehow my meetings with her and the explanations of benefits didn't sink in, I'm not sure.

But UA policies are great value for what you get. Its not major medical. It is NOT major medical. We don't compete with Aetna and Blue Cross. They have better coverage, and if you can afford the premiums and deductibles, I will 100% advise anyone to go with it.

But for people who fall into blue collar working Americans, who don't have $1000 a month to pay for health insurance, UA is the best alternative that they'll find. Our "competitors" if you will aren't competition at all. I take people off of United Health, Midwest, and all those crap policies day in and day out. *shrugs* To each their own.

The message here is that uninformed complaints and claims unvalidated by fact are never the best course of action.

Respectfully,
Justin

As far as employment goes:
They prey on unemployed or recent grads [high school or college]. Basically, due to their propensity of being naive.

I think once employees find out what they are really selling most will leave the company if they have common sense. But, they hope you get so broke you will have no choice but to continue.

They work on a MLM schedule if not a pyramid scheme.