Radio Blue Heart is on the air!
npr:
“ The pitches to the health insurance brokers are tantalizing.
“Set sail for Bermuda,” says insurance giant Cigna, offering top-selling brokers five days at one of the island’s luxury resorts.
Health Net of California’s pitch is not subtle: A...

npr:

The pitches to the health insurance brokers are tantalizing.

“Set sail for Bermuda,” says insurance giant Cigna, offering top-selling brokers five days at one of the island’s luxury resorts.

Health Net of California’s pitch is not subtle: A smiling woman in a business suit rides a giant $100 bill like it’s a surfboard. “Sell more, enroll more, get paid more!” In some cases, its ad says, a broker can “power up” the bonus to $150,000 per employer group.

Not to be outdone, New York’s EmblemHealth promises top-selling brokers “the chance of a lifetime:” going to bat against the retired legendary New York Yankees pitcher Mariano Rivera. In another offer, the company, which bills itself as the state’s largest nonprofit plan, focuses on cash: “The more subscribers you enroll … the bigger the payout.” Bonuses, it says, top out at $100,000 per group, and “there’s no limit to the number of bonuses you can earn.”

Such incentives sound like typical business tactics, until you understand who ends up paying for them: the employers who sign up with the insurers — and, of course, their employees.

Insurers Hand Out Cash and Gifts To Sway Brokers Who Sell Employer Health Plans

Illustration: Katherine Streeter for NPR

  1. ultimatemomfan reblogged this from npr
  2. jack reblogged this from thetentpeg
  3. spilt-laughter reblogged this from npr
  4. necrobob reblogged this from npr
  5. ranapip reblogged this from npr and added:
    The one for my office is a misogynistic slimeball.
  6. cfordwtva reblogged this from npr
  7. article-reblogs reblogged this from npr
  8. cephetacean reblogged this from npr
  9. dkpepper reblogged this from adorkfromnewyork
  10. feuervogel reblogged this from npr
  11. selkypostergirl reblogged this from npr
  12. thedreamingroad reblogged this from npr
  13. tiberiusmulder reblogged this from npr
  14. theisotopesdaughter reblogged this from npr
  15. vforvagrant reblogged this from npr
  16. theilluminatiprincess reblogged this from npr
  17. npr posted this