hello hello hello this is Tama Peters president
and CEO of grow your nonprofit where we help startup small and stagnant nonprofits grow through
fundraising strategy strategic planning and so much more guys today you are in for a treat I
have my special guest here miss we'll talk about the importance of health insurance but before we
get started I'd like to thank the sponsors of my podcast Trinity life Foundation Naples helping
atrisk use through their enrichment program vax truth they recei
ved the Grant from the CDC to
raise awareness of Co 19 and vaccine resources in the black and broud communities Avid that
stands for the associations of Haitians living abroad they just open an amazing support center
right here in the beautiful Fort Meers where they will help you with immigration support utility
billing and English as a second language last but not least best insurance USA your local agency
provider through Florida Blue they will help you with all your family health care in
surance
business and so much more so like I said my special guest here Pauline how are you doing
Pauline I'm well how are you Tama oh I'm doing fantastic it is such an honor to be here with
you I know we probably recorded a podcast last year mhm where we talked about um one of your your
foundations which is AVID yes so Avid is a really great uh organization that's actually having an
event in partnership with best insurance coming up yes yes you're having a 3-day event can you share
with ou
r audience a little bit about your events before we get into our conversation about health
insurance all right Tam so the event that a going to have it's going to be three days Thanksgiving
bash so on the 7 we're going to be in the Fort Myers uh the 18 nap area and on the 19 anim Mali
so we do that every year so it's a day that we give back to the community turkey giveaways food
so people coming in that's a way for us to say thank you to the community and thank God we're
able to get partner
ship with the best insurance uh which is local ageny for Florida Blue Florida
Blue itself and also Sant plus Medical Center all this company come together in um Midwest food bank
so come together to see how do they say thank you to the community and now we expect that people
will be coming in and all the information will be available to our website Avet ah.org that's
where people will be able to find those location in the timing of all the events now A little
birdie told me that you're givi
ng away 1,000 turkeys is that right it is right that that is
amazing so you're mean to tell me me this holiday season 1,000 families will benefit from a turkey
on their plate on Thanksgiving Day yes yes we will that's what we'll do 1,000 turkeys not including
the foods all the the giveaways are going to have the kids uh uh play uh all this thing that we're
going to have we do that every year for the past I could say 15 years wow we always give away
turkeys on on these days and uh people lov
e it that's awesome that's awesome as I always say that
you don't have a business with your customers so you have nothing you have nothing without your
customers what the best way to say thank you especially on Thanksgiving Day you're absolutely
correct because you know I thought when I W walked away from Corporate America I would no longer have
a boss but I quickly realize that my clients are actually my boss are because if they're not
happy they're not going to patronize you and you're go
ing to be out of business real quick
so that's very important I believe businesses should always have a philanthropic arm to their
business and I see you do that well I see you I always admire you because you do so much in the
community Through Your your foundation Avid as well as best insurance so with that said why did
you start best insurance USA was there a need that was not being met in the community exactly so um I
always call myself a social entrepreneur I have to be able to serve pe
ople in whatever business that
I do but best insurance at the beginning I was an accountant I do taxes I help a lot of people
people with their uh business planning and stuff and when it come to uh opening um the Affordable
Care Act and I realize that they will kind of merge together they will kind of get in each other
because the money that the government give you for your insurance actually it's a credit from your
taxes they call it Advance premium tax credit so you claim that ahead of ti
me before you do your
almost a year not almost a year before you do your taxes so you get that money so so you can buy
your insurance so as an accountant I realize that will actually benefit my customers if I go into
the insurance and help them uh with that process so when they come to do their taxes nobody will
mess it up because it's actually a credit that you claim before people probably don't see that but
it's a credit that you claim before you do your taxes and personally for me Insura
nce give me so
great so much great joy because I experience I've been self-employed almost all my life so having
insurance was a struggle yes when I had my kids at a young age very married very early but um they
deny me insurance right after my first baby why because I had a csection because of the csection
my insurance come from $288 to $1,200 wow because they say now I have pre-existing condition
even it's the sem Insurance wow so when the Affordable Care Act come so I saw the law even uh
pre law it was like it was a proposal I'm like God that's what we need we need that we need that
so people like me can be insured because since then my first child and was never able to have
insurance anymore because it was too expensive everywhere you go with pre-existing condition in
second my my kid at 4 years old almost died in the hospital they refused to even give him a shot
because we were not insured wow so for me helping people having insurance is personal because if
it happened
to me my child could have died the hospital because they didn't he didn't have we
were not insured so how many other people that would happen I was lucky yes the doctor said my
son was lucky she he was lucky when I brought him back on Monday to the doctor doctor say he
was lucky to me it wow well so we want to I want to make sure I made it my mission not only
to talk about health insurance how important it is and to make sure everybody have insurance and
they they stay with their insurance
because the consequences are too high you know that that's
very important because I know all my life I've had positions where I worked in government where
I had insurance I had penion and then when I was recruited to the nonprofit world that was the
first time I didn't have health insurance but I I took the risk because it was for me it was
a great career mode so I said oh well I'm I'm making enough money where I can just go buy health
insurance this was before the Obamacare Act and it was
just my son and I at the time and it was very
expensive expensive I think it was like $1,200 a month so it was not affordable to me even though
I made good money so the way I guess I fixed it if you will I bought a lot of supplemental insurance
for like Hospital you know emergency and critical I brought all of that supplemental so I said
if will something happen then we at least we have something but the entire time I prayed
that we never got sick because I always pay for our our our cuz we
're healthy we did our
once a year your annual physical that I just paid out of the pocket but but one accident we
could have been bankrupt yes one accident indeed so that's very important so the Affordable Care
Act through Obamacare really changed a lot of people's lives did it did and I I I every time I
see it I'm like I wish people could understand how it can change your life yes and then people from
uh the um minority communities most of them lose their credit to medical bills most peop
le lose
their credit to medical bills yes because they go to the hospital they think if they go to the
hospital they will see them but they don't know the fall back is your you got to pay back when you
don't pay back they send that to credit collection and that would hurt your credit so having health
insurance is extremely important just not only for your wellbeing but for your financial stability
M so if someone wanted to reach out to you and and learn more information cuz I I was checking
your website you can reach people can actually reach out to Pauline and her staff for just for
consultation in a quote so how would how would they do that okay I call up I I'm interested I I'm
uninsured I'm I I'm entrepreneur I just started I don't have health insurance walk me through that
process the best the best way to do that am since it's really one in one you come to the office you
sit down with the person you ask the question and is very complex unfortunately a lot of people
becau
se they can use the internet because most of the the insurance part of the marketplace you
can go online and you buy insurance big mistake because what are you buying you don't know what
you're buying exactly what does it covered what do you mean when they say you have copay you have
deductible this is the network how do you know if that network is great for you so that's why
insurance agent they go to school they license and not only that they have very heavy training
from the carriers tha
t tell them about those planes because they have multiple multiple planes
out there that can be very confusing for someone so I can have a bone splain with a um that has
high deductible yes I can see my doctor I can go check my on my blood work do everything like I
didn't have a deduc and someone else have the same another Bones plan unless they spend $8,000 they
have zero coverage so they're not going to pay for the service ahead of time for them so if you go
online you just buy the cheape
st one and at the end of the day it might not be the the cor for so
what we do to answer a question tamama the person will call if the person call and agent will talk
to them say hey what is uh can you if you can pay it on your own you're not looking for government
help then we just quote you with your family your datea bird and information where you leave so we
tell you this is how much it's going to be we have different plan they have HMO plane they have po
planes it's going to base on yo
ur needs then you can choose but uh if you come to the office you
will sit down with someone one in one and then they'll go over with you the basic information
if you need help from the government the first thing to do is to apply for the subsidy people
don't know that it is twostep when you buying Insurance to the marketplace it's a two twostep
process first you apply give all your information to the government you give your finan insures and
they tell you how much money you qualified once
you know how much money you qualified this is when
you now go search for ins and then they will take your subsidy pay for it most people the good news
most people are more than 50% qualified to get it at zero cost wow yes yes the government cover
almost everything all the and and what I like about your company is that you actually educate
your your uh clients not just we want to sell a policy and I say that because I have first had
an experience one of your staff members signed me up at th
e time um I actually had someone sign
me up for a plan and I had a very high deductible I thought I was in I was covered but one of your
staff members took a a second look at what I had and they was like oh no you have a high deductible
this is all wrong and um you know he went on the the the marketplace and then really found me a
great plan that covered my son and I and guess what Z it cost us0 to to have yeah exactly
that's where the knowledge is a knowledge is power I dedicate myself to
educate the community
I go everywhere that I can through the radio uh to churches Community event to explain to people
not only why health insurance is important and how to buy health insurance it's not something that
you should go ahead and take do it yourself do it yourself you have to have knowledge on insurance
if you don't have knowledge you take a risk and at the end of the day the insurance company wins
because you have that is not going cover Bas that like say a regular physical for
the year your
blood work loan will cost you between $3 to $4,000 if you want to do a full checkup wow uhhuh just
a very basic visit and if you're a woman you got to go see your gynecologist and there are things
if you're in your 40s then you have you need your mogram there are so many other things that will
come in and that the cost will add up add up just preventing care yes not even you getting sick
just preventing care so to do preventive care only it will be uh costing you um so much m
oney so
the best thing is you find an agent you sit down us as best insurance we educate we tell you and
you don't have to even explain the good thing you don't you don't even have to explain your medical
needs or what what what your health situation is you can say I need a great plane I need a plane
that will allow me to go to my Hospital close to me I need a plane that will cover those
medications for me and then what pharmacy is in the network you need those information ahead
of time an
d your and your staff could help we do that yes even your medication some people don't
understand you might have a plane he covers uh uh certain ples cover this medic this medication and
other planes don't so because your friends have a plane all the medication covered that doesn't
mean you going to cover so it's not a one siiz foot fit all no no no that's what a lot of people
thinking that's what they get it one it's not one plane fit it all no you want to know uh um your
plan and what doe
s it cover you can have a plan Ona you can only use it at certain Pharmacy and I
have a plane that can be used with every Pharmacy in town so if I have an HMO plane I have a
PO plane that all make the difference right so people need to understand and know how to buy
health insurance and allow Health agent to right I'm happy you mentioned that because that was my
next question what is the difference between HMO and a PO HMO it's if you take it's the acronym
Health maintenance organization it
is really um a plane that is there very good plane they they both
cover the same thing PP and HMO the difference is is the freedom of the network the network factors
so HMO required it very uh uh uh uh sometime you have narrow Network mm when it come to your PCP
and requires you some hm requires you to choose the PCP if you don't choose care provider if you
don't choose one the carrier choose one for you and you can only go to see that PCP you cannot
just wake up and say oh my God I have a
Doctor by my house it seemed like it's always busy my
my neighbor say loves him I'm going to go to him no if he's not in your network even if he is in
your network if he's not the PCP assigned to you you can see the doctor oh but the great news you
can always call the insurance carrier say hey I see that doctor is in my network can I change you
can always sarch and change so the HMO plan the health maintenance organization if you are someone
who's looking for great care most of them actual
ly they aims to preventive care they really focus
on PR taking care of you make sure you don't get sick so that's probably a good plan that is there
because the doctors are obligated to take care of you to make sure you do certain test every year
but if you on a PO plan not really this it most of it are fif service you go you don't go to the
doctor don't really have to do much for you you go to the doctor in done but atmo plane they are
most likely preventive the doctor have to take care of
you but it can be annoying because of the
referal authorization every time that you have to see a specialist your parame need to approve
it some people can feel like it's a burden I need to see my doctor now some people don't have
patients they want to see The Specialist now but when you on an HMO plane it kind of help you too
you just don't want to go see you might go see the one specialist but the PCP on they see what's
wrong with you they will guide you to the right specialist a PO plan
e you don't really need that
you just oh oh my God I feel something wrong in my arm let me go see an aop let me go see a pen
doctor you just go see the pen doctor but most of the time that might not be the great right uh
choice for you so P plan give you Freedom you can use it in network out out Network HMO plane you
can only use it in network no coverage outside of network and this is why people have to be very
careful to make up for example we have we here in Fort Myers we have multiple i
nsance carriers
that are here in Fort Myers certain of them don't don't have uh um they're not part of the Le par
for example one of the biggest chain Hospital in our area Le Memorial they're not in the network
if they're not in network and then you go to the hospital and have a surgery they're not going
to C for it oh wow even when you have insurance so knowing which hospital especially that the
hospital that are close to you in your network extremely extremely important you need to educat
e
yourself so so your staff will will kind of walk them through to let them know and and and lay out
hey this is the hospital that is in your network if you needed to go to the emergency room this
is the yes yeah this is how much it's going to cost you yes and then e visit too education some
people think if I have insurance I can go wherever I want I would think that too that's not you what
about the cost for example you're not feeling well you have a headache you go to your primary care
p
robably you have no coopay or $10 copay or you go to a emergency they call them Urgent Care Services
you go to this Clinic probably $50 but you said no let me go to the hospital because it's going to
be faster no but your plane has probably $200 or $300 for ER visit Plus 30% Co Insurance oh wow so
one visit at the ER can cost you between $1,200 to $1,500 oh depend of your plane so if you have
high deductible then you cover that they don't cover it for you so you always have to make sure
eve
n when you have the insurance where where where uh the the places you take Services count some
places cost you more than others educate yourself ahead of time can really really really be H very
good for for your pocket so not only I'm going it's like an ATM card you can go wherever you
want yeah you can sometime but it might be um costing you more money yeah yeah yeah like I
said we're almost out of time but but I know we focus today on health insurance but there are
so many other different
prongs to best insurance USA there's also business insurance which is very
important life insurance I'd like to invite you back in on the show to discuss the importance of
life insurance because a lot of people especially in the minority Community when we think about life
insurance no one wants to touch that no one wants to touch having a will or a trust because no one
wants to die but guess what 100% of us are going to die one day exactly so with the life insurance
is it's basically it's
covering the income that's lost yes when that loved one um passes away say
maybe if you had a two income Family household or maybe the the wife stayed at home and the
husband worked you lose that income so it's income replacement and not only that leaving Legacy for
your family so that's very important it is indeed I would love to come back to make because this is
a long conversation especially for our community for them to understand and in life insurance
actually white night it's not only
about life insurance you can create wealth life insurance
is actually asset do you know if you have a cash uh life insurance with cash value on it and uh
um you can sell it at certain time you 20 years 30 years or 10 you can sell your life insurance
life insurance is actually asset what again what plan do you have and you need to be you need to
also be educated educated what plan do you have a Term Policy do you have a world life policy do
you have a um universal life is an index Universal
what plane do you we'll make a differ this is
Juicy this is Juicy as you can see uh Pauline is very passionate and she's a wealth of knowledge
so we're going to have it back so before we wrap up can you tell our audience how they can reach
you reach you and what's your website it'll show on the screen all right thank you so um the first
thing I'm going to tell them it's open enrollment open enrollment start as you all know maybe
November 1st it ends December 15 the tricky part is we have a
n extension until January 15 a lot of
people that wait at the last minute you know what they're going to do they're going to apply January
14th but remember if you don't have insurance you do that that's okay but you going to have it in
February you're going to spend one month in the year without insurance in January and if if you
already have it you don't renew before December 15 whatever changes that you made to your policy not
going to be in effect until February so the good practice you
R you you buy your insance before
December 15 so anything that you do can take effect in January for us you can go to our website
at ww. best insurance usa.net uh you can call us it's uh 1 1800 49971 we have seven locations
we're on the East Coast the West Coast Central Florida if you visit our website you're going to
see everywhere we are and for your convenience we have a call center you can call us and then we'll
be able to take your application over the phone if you do not want to take
the work and come to the
office I would love you to come at least we can answer all your questions so you can have the
right plan for you and your family but if you don't want to do that that's fine you can still
call so you guys you don't have any excuse either all sorts of ways that they could help you whether
it's on the phone in person how about virtual can do Zoom yes we do zoomo Zoom why not why not so
thank you so much Pauline thank you tamama for having me you're welcome so guys we
did something
a little different today I know we usually bring our nonprofits volunteers and philanthropists
but we felt it was very important to discuss the importance of health insurance because health
insurance and not having it you can go bankrupt but guess what there's more layers to health
insurance there's the life insurance if your entrepreneur the important to have business
liability insurance Professional Insurance and so much more we're going to get into those
conversations and
L later episodes so guys don't forget to like And subscribe to my YouTube channel
stay tuned for more grow your nonprofit podcast [Music] episodes [Music]
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