How Much Money Can Health Insurance Agents Make?

People have different reasons for entering the industry, but everyone selling health insurance has one common goal: to make money.

Just how lucrative is selling health insurance? We’ll go over the basics and your potential commissions when you add multiple insurance lines to your portfolio!

Do you want to start maximizing your profits by offering a wide variety of products? We can show you how!

How Do Health Insurance Agents Make Money?

Agents typically get paid through commissions, which are a percentage of the insurance premium or on a federally regulated standard. This doesn’t mean you should always try and sell the most expensive policy.

When agents sell a new policy, they earn a higher commission rate compared to when that policy is renewed. However, a client who continues to renew will eventually be just as, if not more, valuable than an initial sale. By balancing profitability with your clients’ health care needs, you can have loyal business (and commissions) for years to come.

A client who continues to renew will eventually be just as, if not more, valuable than an initial sale.

Your contracts and levels with companies will affect your earnings. There are also other ways to earn bonuses throughout the year with carriers or field marketing organizations. For example, Ritter’s Quest for Cash rewards our top Medicare Supplement producer at the end of the year with $10,000!

Your Potential Commissions for Different Health Insurance Products

So, how much can you make selling health insurance? It really depends on how you build your portfolio. If you want to be as successful as possible, you want to offer a mix of plans and products to help all different types of people prepare for different situations.

Medicare Advantage & Part D

Agents who sell Medicare Advantage and Part D plans get a flat dollar amount of money per application. This comes in the form of initial and renewal commissions set by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

Let’s say you’re meeting with a client who wants to enroll in a Medicare Advantage plan for the first time. Since this is the first sale with the client, you could earn a commission of $611. If they decide to renew the next year, you could earn $306 that next year!

Medicare Supplements

For Medicare Supplements, agents earn a percentage of the premiums of the policies they sell. Unlike Medicare Advantage and Part D, CMS does not set a maximum broker commission for Med Supps.

An average annual premium of $1,644 with an initial commission rate of 22 percent means each Medicare Supplement policy could earn you $362. A consistent stream of enrollments can really stack up annually!

Every Med Supp plan should also be paired with a Part D prescription drug plan (PDP). With three policies a week with an initial commission of $100 is $15,600 on top of your Medicare Supplement commissions!

ACA Products

Affordable Care Act (ACA) commissions can add up quickly, and if your client remains enrolled in marketplace coverage, you can continue to earn commissions.

Here’s an example that shows how much you could make:

Jess, an independent insurance agent in Indiana, earned an average of $23.93 per member, per month. Jess has a new ACA client — a 43-year-old mother with two children who also need health insurance. That means that Jess could earn $71.79 for their family, every month. For one year, that’s $861.48 in commissions!

Your Guide to Making More Money

This is just a small piece of the pie. You can learn even more about maximizing your commissions for ancillary and annuity products with The Guide to Making Money Selling Health Insurance. In the guide, we help you navigate your potential earnings with different plans and products, earn client trust, and maintain organic growth over time.

It’s completely free to download our guide.

Want to start making more money selling health insurance? You can reach your full potential by building a complete portfolio with plans and products that fit all types of client needs. Ritter makes it even easier to contract with carriers, sell policies, keep track of your business. It’s completely free to register and join us. We’d love to have you!