For years we have been telling agents that they shouldn’t sleep on Medicare Supplement Plan N. Those of us who have been in the senior market for decades can easily remember when we went to standardized plans in 1992. Back then agents typically sold either Plan F or Plan C. This made life easy for consumers where they only had to decide if they wanted to pay more and have excess charge coverage with a Plan F.
What Happened To Plan C?
Over the years, Plan C saw quite a bit of claims, to a point where in many cases a Plan C now cost more than a Plan F.
What were agents to do? For a number of years Senior Benefit Services had been showing agents how a Plan D was a more viable option. The pricing on the plan was fantastic and the only difference between Plan C and Plan D was the Part B deductible. At that time it was easy to save far more in premium and pay your own Part B deductible with a Plan D. In addition, we were seeing far less increases with Plan D than Plan C or Plan F.
What Happened To Plan D?
Agents were happy, clients were happy, and even the insurance carriers were happy with Plan D. Over the next decade the utilization on in-force Plan D plans continued to climb and started to hover around the price of Plan G. When carriers released new Medicare Supplement series into a state, most chose not to offer the Plan D.
In 2020 the sale of Plan C or Plan F to seniors going onto Medicare was no longer allowed. While the Plan N was available, it was simply viewed by many as the red headed stepchild of the Medicare Supplement world. Many agents complained that it was too confusing for the average consumer to understand and would cause nothing but extra service work.
The reality is that it is far from that!
Why Sell Plan N?
First and foremost, over the years we have seen Plan N remain fairly stable. Of course, this doesn’t factor in when one carrier decided to use Plan N as a guaranteed issue Medicare Supplement (that ended in a high utilization rates and surging premiums). Luckily, we have not seen that happen again.
Second, in many cases the monthly cost for Plan N is 20%-30% less than a Plan G.
Thirdly, many carriers actually pay the agent a higher commission for the sale of a Plan N.
The Big Hurdle To Get Over
Just like decades ago, many agents are still afraid that their clients will not understand the co-pays for health care provider visits or for emergency room visits. If you are thinking the same way about Plan N then you need to remember that most of today’s Medicare beneficiaries came from having group insurance that was filled with co-pays and co-insurance. The Plan N only deals with a total of TWO areas for the co-pays.
If you are selling Medicare Advantage plans, then you already know there are more than two areas that clients will be making co-pays and in most cases 20% co-insurance for other areas of care.
Why The Co-Pays for Plan N….’Are No Big Deal!’
If you read the outline of coverage for the co-payments, you will see where it says “Up to”. So for a visit to your primary care physician the co-pay is “Up to $20”. In fact it could actually be lower, but will never be higher.
For an emergency room visit the co-pay is “Up to $50”, but is waived if the client is admitted to the hospital from the ER.
Get To Know Plan N
We know that trying something new can be scary. The good news is that we make it easy for you to start selling Plan N! Give us a call today at (800)924-4727 or shoot an email to marketing@srbenefit.com and ask for the top Plan N carriers in your state.