posted on June 22, 2002 10:57:24 AM new
This is interesting. Fresh news from eBay live. Check out this announcement from Meg Whitman from about an hour ago.
posted on June 22, 2002 11:39:01 AM new
I am sure this "health insurance" for Power Sellers will be just as valuable as all the other wonderful benefits of being a Power Seller.
posted on June 22, 2002 12:03:04 PM new
Sounds good so far. Wonder what it will cover and cost. My hubby has wanted to go full time with me for a few years. The only thing stopping him was the need for insurance.
posted on June 22, 2002 12:15:36 PM new
This would be a great if there was no physical and you get groups rates but it is probably not like the typical insurance you get through a large company where you do not have to qualify and I am sure this will leave many at sellers out of the program as it already does without eBay involved.
posted on June 22, 2002 12:24:24 PM new
I can not see it being anything but the barest of coverage with large co-payments and premiums. eBay will probably make money on the deal in the form of a kickback.
posted on June 22, 2002 12:33:59 PM new
Whether Ebay makes money on the deal is irrelevent, what is relevant are the benefits to joining an association plan, which are generally short on benefits and high in premium. You can get personal plans with better coverage. Let your fingers do the walking.....
I used to sell medical insurance and the easiest sells were individuals and groups that were on association plans thinking they had such a deal. Usually not so. Tact was needed in most cases because no one likes to think they got sucked in. The plan administrators make bucks, that's for sure. Ebay may self insure - that would be a possibility.
They cannot give you a plan like an employee plan as the employer-employee relationship is just not there and there are legalities that must be met for that to happen. If you think you will like an association plan, I suggest you do your homework before sending in your check.
posted on June 22, 2002 12:50:49 PM new
How could eBay offer a good insurance deal when most employers either can't offer a good deal or can't offer insurance at all ?
The medical insurance situation is all but in crisis. Even those with what they considered "good" insurance are finding that claims are being denied, surgies being called "unnecessay", and drug costs sky rocketing.
So out of the blue eBay can offer coverage that is worthwhile ?
What eBay probably has done is offered their list of Power Sellers to an insurance company.
posted on June 22, 2002 01:41:03 PM new
bestattic: That might be true if you are young and healthy. My husband and I are both over 55 and we are self-employed. WE had a poor insurance policy through State Farm where our premiums just jumped up to $550 a month and that was for no doctor or medicine reimbursement, just major medical for hospital coverage. Then there was a $1,000 deductible which applied to EACH trip to the hospital for each of us -- no annual deductible.
For the first time in my life we are now uninsured! At age 60 our premiums would have been $1,080 a month (that is without any increases just allowing for annual built in ones as we age) and we all know they will have increases each year above that.
I live in constant fear that we will need to go to the hospital, but just couldn't afford these rates any longer. We did let our fingers do the walking and found that policy was actually cheaper than any others -- and they all required physicals. My husband is diabetic with high blood pressure so we are out of luck.
If Ebay offers anything at all I will definitely pump up the listings to make and maintain power seller status!
posted on June 22, 2002 02:30:41 PM new
Also notice that thay are creating two new classes of powerseller, Platinum and Titanium. I didn't notice if they mentioned the sales requirements for these new classes.
They may limit this new insurance to only certain classes of Powerseller. If you have to sell $50,000 worth of stuff on eBay each month, there will be very few takers.
I list around 150 items a week, and I've still never made even the 'cheapie' powerseller status. I can't imaging selling $10,000 through eBay every month.
posted on June 22, 2002 02:34:10 PM new
lindajean,
Your situation is not unique, it's a sad situation that many of us face and an association plan will not help.
Think about it. X insurance company goes to Ebay and says 'hey Ebay, we can offer your members health insurance and we'll private label it for you' Here's the deal.
This will be a company already in existence and the coverage will not be good, but it will look good.
Ebay will 'offer' it - that's not the same as 'Ebay will pay for it'.
posted on June 22, 2002 02:57:48 PM new
Health insurance is such a farce to begin with, if I had known forty years ago what I know now, I would never have given these con artists one cent.
I was in a plan, paid plenty into it, took nothing out for thirty years. When I really needed it, the rates went up and up, and my group finally dissolved. Then I was in the super premium group for individuals, and overall got back less than 4% of what I paid.
These insurance companies have it all figured out, with people changing jobs so often, they can pick and choose who to insure and at what rate. So they get rich while most workers find themselves out of luck in later years.
In an effort to make more money, they set up all kinds of rules and reviews, so now doctors are lying to the insurers in order to get their patients needed treatment.
A great testimony to the lack of responsibility our corporate community has for the public at large.
posted on June 22, 2002 03:17:00 PM new
may be ebay is counting on couch potatoes who dont get into trouble,all they do is sit on their fat ass in front of the pc and list and list and list??
there are powersellers who sell a lot on ebay,it is not difficult if you sell laptop ,pc ,servers etc to rake up 20,000 a month,there are also collectibles and antique sellers who do over 10,000 a month.
but unless you have other venues to sell as well,say an established retail shop ,it is rather risky to take on lots of expensive inventory just to sell on ebay.
insurance industry is a dying industry,not just health,but look at homeowner insurance and even auto.
no matter how much a person pays them,it is not enough to recoup the expeneses they have to pay to see us off (off to the big blue sky),cancer easily 1/2 million,open heart surgery over 100,000,what else??
there is no trade in for our body and there is no salvage yard they can dump us into.
may be title insurance makes good money??
posted on June 22, 2002 04:28:22 PM new
stopwhining, you are absolutely correct. A premie costs 1/2 a million easy, not to mention other chronic fatal diseases.
It's the price we pay to be born early and die late!
I bet insurance in a third world country is really cheap.
posted on June 22, 2002 06:45:31 PM new
life is cheap in third world country but insurance is expensive as people dont believe in forking over hard earned money to the insurer when you are well,and when you are not well,then you find out they dont pay this,they dont pay that,and whatever they pay there is a 20% co-payment,there is a deductible and if you file too many claims,they do not renew your policy
so less people in the insurance pool,the premium is much higher.
i guess they practice self insurance??have that money in the bank and earn interest,use it for rainy days,doctors and hospitals like that too,no paperworks.
posted on June 22, 2002 07:29:59 PM new
Being a Power Seller, I'd say it would be nice, as we have been self employed almost 20 years, BUT, if I felt/believed I HAD to keep up Power Seller status, to know we had health insurance, then I'd need the health insurance, as it would give me a nervious break down....
Nice, but I don't want my health insurance tied to my ability, or desire to sell on eBay....boy that is one way to hold sellers hostage.
There are other ways to get individual health insurance, I for one don't want any tied to eBay.
And it's just what I said in my earlier post.. Insurance will be available to Platinum and Titanium Powersellers. To Qualify for Platinum, you must sell $25,000 per month. Titanium sellers must sell $150,000 per month.
Other than Real Estate or may be Automobiles, WHAT could you sell on eBay to do $150,000 consistently every month?
posted on June 23, 2002 09:50:53 AM new
If power sellers sell that month each month on eBay they can afford their own insurance. That would be better than being held hostage by eBay into mandatory selling levels to maintain helth coverage.
I think this health coverage gambit was very poorly thought out by eBay.
posted on June 23, 2002 04:09:35 PM new
Pursglove is now saying health insurance coverage will be available to all PowerSellers, including us lowly Bronze-Silver-Gold folks.
posted on June 24, 2002 07:05:35 AM new
"That's only 15,000 of those "Rare" glass X-men chess sets!"
I actually bought one of those (With the mirrored board and wooden case)- It's actually really pretty nice! But then I also have two marble boards and around a dozen PC chess games, so I'm definitely a chess-whacko.
