Good Neighbor Podcast: Cobb County
Bringing together local businesses and neighbors of Cobb County. Good Neighbor Podcast hosted by Milli M. helps residents discover and connect with your local business owners in and around Cobb County, Georgia.
Is your business serving the residents of Cobb County? Then, we need to talk! Visit gnpCobbCounty.com to schedule your free interview.
Good Neighbor Podcast: Cobb County
E64: Your Personal Guide to Affordable Health Coverage is Closer Than You Think
Finding affordable, comprehensive health insurance can feel like searching for a needle in a haystack, especially when you're navigating the options alone. Stephen Weinberger of Health Insurance Doctor brings clarity to this complex landscape with nearly 17 years of experience creating customized insurance solutions.
"Are you paying more for your health insurance than your rent or mortgage?" This revealing question from Stephen frames the crucial conversation about health coverage costs. As a top-performing insurance specialist (ranking in the top 50 out of 12,000 agents nationwide), Stephen specializes in helping self-employed individuals, small business owners, and people transitioning to Medicare find optimal coverage solutions without the usual confusion and frustration.
What sets Stephen's approach apart is his commitment to listening first, then creating truly personalized plans. He doesn't just sell insurance; he designs comprehensive "corporate-style benefit packages" for people without traditional employer benefits. This becomes particularly valuable when considering sobering statistics, like NBC Dateline's report that first-time cancer patients face around $40,000 in out-of-pocket expenses not covered by standard health insurance. For Cobb County residents frustrated with limited HMO marketplace options, Stephen offers alternative plans that can cost 60% less than non-subsidized ACA coverage while providing greater flexibility and choice.
Perhaps most surprising to many is learning that working with an insurance agent costs nothing—Stephen's expertise comes at no charge to clients since agents are compensated through the insurance companies themselves. Whether you're seeking marketplace plans, Medicare guidance, or supplemental coverage for specific conditions, connecting with a knowledgeable guide like Stephen can transform an overwhelming process into a confident decision. Reach out to Health Insurance Doctor at healthinsurancedoctor.net or 678-523-0759 to discover insurance solutions tailored specifically to your needs.
no-transcript. This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Millie M.
Speaker 2:Hello everybody, welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast. I'm your host, millie M. Are you in need of a full service insurance agency? Well, one might be closer than you think. I have the pleasure of introducing your good neighbor, stephen Weinberger, of Health Insurance Doctor. How are you, stephen?
Speaker 3:I'm well, thank you. How are you today?
Speaker 2:Doing well. Thank you so much for asking. We are so excited to learn all about you and your business.
Speaker 3:Tell us more about Health Insurance, doctor. Well, thank you. So we are a full service health and life insurance agency. We specialize in both health insurance marketplace plans and also alternative market marketplace health plans. So I always ask people are you paying more for your health insurance and your rent or your mortgage? If you are, I'm actually an expert in. I've been doing this for 16 years, almost 17, although I know I look very young. Absolutely yes, and but as well as the health insurance, we offer help with Medicare, life insurance, disability insurance, long term care life insurance, disability insurance, long-term care, supplemental insurance like dental and vision and cancer plans and heart attack and stroke plans and all those good things that you need.
Speaker 2:Lots of nooks and crannies and individual plans and lots for people to navigate through. So how did you get into this business?
Speaker 3:What made you decide insurance? Well, so I laugh about it because it kind of found me. I was about 16 years ago. I was going through some turmoil personal turmoil, the business I was in at the time, the economy just wasn't there any longer. So I found this opportunity, which I love. It's one of the best decisions I've ever made in my whole life is to help people with getting great coverage. So I don't even tell people. I tell people I haven't even sold anything in 16 years. What I do is I offer solutions to problems that people don't even know that they might have.
Speaker 2:I love that perspective and I'm so glad that your transition worked out in your favor, that you get to help people for a living. So what are some of the myths and misconceptions about your industry or what you do in particular?
Speaker 3:Well, unfortunately, our industry is politically driven, so it depends on the blue team or the red team. You're going to probably make 50% of the people upset one way or another. So over the last 14 years since the Affordable Care Act came into play, there's been uncertainty in health insurance, and then if you try to do it on your own, it's just so confusing and a lot of people just don't know how to speak insurance. So that's why you need someone like myself to to guide people and navigate them through all the potholes. One of the neat things about using either myself or another agent is that we don't charge for our services, so we get paid by and through the insurance companies. So that's one of the you know the negative.
Speaker 3:I think people think that they have to, you know, pay for our services and our expertise.
Speaker 2:I think more people definitely need to know that it is a free service to them and that you don't have a dog in the fight as to what plan they go with or what they decide to do. And I know my father has a long-term friend who was very worried about this past election because they said, you know, if a particular candidate wins, I might lose my health care. So it wasn't about red or blue or Democrat or Republican. They just, you know, needed that life-saving insurance to be in place for them. So I can see how that, how politics, can definitely affect what you do. Who are your target customers and how do you reach them? Are you, do you work more with older people or people with children?
Speaker 3:Yes, that's a good question. Uh. So my, my particular business uh has kind of taken a path of I look for self-insured people, small business owners, um, people who are bridging to medicare in their late 50s, early 60s, to Medicare in their late 50s, early 60s, people who don't qualify for any kind of subsidy of the Affordable Care Act. And, for example, that happened to me I was paying over $700 a month for a non-subsidized plan on the Affordable Care Act and then one year it jumped over to $1,200 a month, just for myself, goodness.
Speaker 3:So, because I did some digging around, I found these alternative health insurance plans that you could purchase year round. That you could purchase year-round. They are about 60% less than a marketplace plan without a subsidy. So you know, ppos that's one of the biggest problems that we find here in Cobb County is that all the plans that are on the marketplace are all HMO networks, and so that means they're skinnier and you need referrals to see specialists, and so a lot of people are unhappy about that. So we just offer some alternative options for people based on their criteria and their health what they're looking for in a plan.
Speaker 2:Absolutely Well. Have you ever thought about doing your own podcast? You have so much information and people need to know that these services are out there.
Speaker 3:I've been thinking about doing it. I know some of my colleagues are doing it, so I'm happy to talk to you about that.
Speaker 2:We'll make something happen, for sure, yes. So outside of work, what do you do for fun? Let's get off work, let's talk fun.
Speaker 3:Oh well, I have season tickets for the Braves, so a big baseball fan, yay. And I'm always looking for people to go to the games for the games I can't go to, so I'm happy to give my tickets. Just travel. I just came back from Italy about a month ago, so that was fun. I was there for two weeks and I'm going to Greece at the end of August.
Speaker 2:I'm so jealous. Those are both on my top five, if not top ten, list of places to go.
Speaker 3:I mean top five places to go, one of the neat things about being in the insurance business if you do well, they will send you on trips around the world, and so my Greece trip is because, out of over 12,000 agents nationwide, I was in the top 50. Congratulations, so yeah, so I qualified for a trip to Athens.
Speaker 2:Not Athens.
Speaker 3:Georgia, but Athens Greece.
Speaker 2:Yeah, let's distinguish. I love that Good for you, perks of the job and well-deserved for helping others. So, stephen, please tell our listeners one thing you would like for them to always remember about health insurance doctor.
Speaker 3:Oh well. So what we do a little bit differently is that we'll sit down and listen to actually what you're looking for. We don't have any preconceived plans, because not every plan is equal. Not every plan is equal when people ask me, like what's the best company? The best company to work with is the one that all your doctors take. All your medications are at a very affordable price. So it could be that even a husband and wife could have altogether different objectives in a plan.
Speaker 3:So, with that said, I will build a corporate style benefit plan for people who are wanting just not health insurance, but would like a comprehensive plan.
Speaker 3:But would like a comprehensive plan Because if I was working for the Home Depot, they would offer not only health insurance but they would offer life insurance, cancer plans, short-term medical plans. One of the things that, unfortunately, is that we all hope to have good health but some of some of us have have some issues and when those issues come and we didn't prepare financially, you know it would it's wonderful to be able to have a policy that pays $50,000 for having cancer for the first time. Nbc Dateline did a segment a couple years back stating that first-time cancer patients, even with health insurance have about a $40,000 out-of-pocket expense that's not covered by health insurance. How many people do we talk to with parents that are older and they didn't prepare themselves to go into a facility that's not run by Medicaid? My father-in-law God rest his soul he went to a place that you just wouldn't want your worst enemy to be in, and so we want to be able to sit down and prepare for, you know, these type of life changing events.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and even to your point. There's a lot of entrepreneurs and business owners and people with nontraditional incomes and things like that who they don't have that safety net of a benefits package to rely on. So I love how you say we will customize a corporate style plan for you, even if you're not in that corporate lifestyle. Thank you so much, stephen. We really appreciate your insights and thank you for your time, wishing you and your business the best.
Speaker 3:Well, thank you for having me, Millie.
Speaker 2:To learn more about Stephen Weinberger, log on to healthinsurancedoctornetcom or call 678-523-0759.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnpcobbcountycom. That's gnpcobbcountycom, or call 470-470-4506.