AT&T Retirement Option through AON Group - Opinion only

you know what I think there's nothing worse than taking advantage of a senior citizen who's on a fixed income by trying to sell her the most expensive plan knowing that there are 19 plans less expensive in a given market place just for the pure profit motive behind it I think it's sick really and that's just my personal opinion hi my name is Christopher Westfall I run the senior savings Network an independent brokerage working for seniors and I've been an insurance agent for 20 years according

to the Medicare & you guidebook right here on page 60 was it this year page 68 it says all Medicare plans are exactly the same plan out from one company is the same as plaintiff from another company look at it right there on page 68 it says the only difference is in the premiums that they charge well today I got a call from an 80 year old lady zip code for eight one-nine-five my fellow agents can look at this and compare it and you'll see exactly what I see she is

in Central Michigan 80 years old and she was a 20-plus year longtime employee of AT&T will she along with 300,000 other retirees has recently been told that they will no longer have company sponsored benefits they will be going into a exchange to shop for their market their benefits for them and they'll be giving a health care reimbursement account to pay for some of those premiums for them but for the benefit of running this exchange an insurance

agency has convinced a and T NT that they'll take good care of the seniors that are part of of this program and so this nice young lady who called me was told that in her area of Michigan again zip code for eight one nine five that the cheapest actually the only plan G that's available for her is through sterling life and it's around two hundred and eighty seven dollars a month for plan G two hundred and eighty seven dollars a month and they told her that

there's no drug plan available for her in her area sorry can't get a drug plan that's insane folks there are 10 companies at least 10 companies in her zip code that have better rates than that bait by a long shot and again remember the benefits are all exactly the same so I told her because she asked me for my independent opinion Aetna under their brand name called American Continental in Michigan Aetna has the same plan G for a hundred and eighty nine dollars a month that saves

$100 per month now if AT&T is contributing to these premiums they may not care that you know the company that's doing the brokerage the exchange for them is taking them to the cleaners for an extra $100 a month so that they can merely collect more of the Commission because guess what with insurance companies the Commission is a part of the the premium paid so if I charge you the highest plan in the market which they're doing is the only option then if it's $100 more it's a

hundred percent more premium it's ridiculous so anyway we have American continental at 189 per month now remember the only one offered for plan G through a on group was sterling and over two hundred and seventy dollars a month so for $100 less we have American Continental which is Aetna we have Stonebridge at 191 medico at 199 all great companies for Thought 199 mutual of Omaha 205 CSI at 221 Gerber life at

235 loyal American which is now Cigna 250 for KS JK life 268 any one of these companies would be better for her any of them so if you're going to tell people that they're part of an exchange and they only have one choice and it's the most expensive thing in the market and you're doing this to a little old lady who's sweet as she can be on a fixed income who is now thrown to the Wolves to fend for herself and to figure out what she's going to do with all these benefits I just think it's wrong and it's my personal opinion that every one

of these retirees should go out there and speak with an independent agent like us that can write in 40 something States and help you right over the phone free for free to look at the rates out there and say look this is what the market really holds now in order to take advantage of the healthcare reimbursement account you must get at least your drug plan through the exchange and once you've gotten at least the drug plan through the exchange which I encourage you to do to allow you to have access to the checkbook of the

healthcare reimbursement account now you've got twenty seven hundred dollars in benefit that you can write your own check for the premium for the best deal in the market which is what you really should be doing see it doesn't make any sense to pay one dime more for an expensive name much less the most expensive name in the marketplace just to say that well if it costs more it must be better no nobody pays a doctor one dollar more than the other twenty percent that Medicare doesn't pay you know you can

have a ERP or Aetna or Aflac or any of the companies that are Medicare supplement companies and they're not going to pay one dollar more than the other one and they'll pay all the claims if Medicare says it's an approved claim it's an approved claim and no one can say otherwise so you're not going to have one link of difference going to a doctor or hospital or a procedure or anything else if you show them a Mutual of Omaha card or if you show them an AARP card it's the same exact thing is and if you don't believe me look in your

book that comes from the government they want you to know they're exactly the same so don't get ripped off by paying a hundred dollars more you know and if you're just going to say well it's the company's money it's the retirement plans money just let them go ahead and do it you know it's easy I think we all should be good stewards of our money regardless of who's paying the bill if it's a company that we express loyalty to for over 20 years by retiring with them don't we want to do the best buy the company and what they're spending out in benefits because I guarantee you one thing will

happen if they continue to get ripped off to the tune of 300 thousand people getting the most expensive plan in their marketplace they can't continue these benefits and if whoever they've partnered with is not truly independent and shopping every plan that's available in that market heck if you want to pick all the plans in the market that are rated A+ and more you still can do that and safe in this case a hundred dollars per month with this nice lady and then to tell her that there's no drug plan that she can get in her market when there are over thirty four independent

Part D drug plans available in her market that anybody can see from a free quote engine that's just wrong people so I encourage any seniors that may be watching this call an independent Medicare agent if they work for one of the big companies and they can only sell one company don't do business with them because I can guarantee you they're one company is not always going to be a best fit for you but if you find somebody who's licensed with all the companies and they can show you the spreadsheet

they can show you which I can every company that's in that particular market then you know you're not going to get ripped off and you can pick the best plan in the market so if we can help you that's great just don't take it for granted that the one option or maybe the two options that you're being given right now are the only options out there because there is in my opinion an ulterior motive for offering the highest expensive most expensiv plans in that marketplace and I think that's wrong but that's my opinion thanks for

watching have a good day our number here by the way is toll-free 800 79 95 90 that's 872 nine ninety five ninety at the senior savings network.org on the computer senior savings network.org thanks have a great day you