After being retired for several years, my wife and I moved to Florida and had to get new health insurance. After one year I was advised by the most impersonal letter that our monthly premium was increasing from $700 per month to over $1300 per month, nearly DOUBLE! My insurance agent got us different coverage at a rate around the $700 we were paying but he made me aware of some thing new called a “discount card” at $69.95 per month. As someone who had spent his career marketing to corporate America I was intrigued by the opportunity of what appeared to be a viable solution to the rising health care costs facing America’s employers. Although an insurance agent license was not required in order to sell a “discount card”, I knew by experience that if I was going to solicit professionals, I would have to be knowledgeable, so I took the forty hour course, passed the test, and became an insurance agent for health, life and annuities licensed by the State of Florida. That’s when my health insurance education really started and to say that I was amazed would be an under statement.
I began my professional career in 1966. I met Mr. Sam Walton, founder of Wal-Mart, in 1967 and established and maintained a business relationship with the Wal-Mart which still continues today. In 1976 I formed my own sales agency, Domino Industries. I am recognized for my marketing leadership, innovative marketing strategies, motivation of my employees, and most importantly my understanding and enforcing the importance of customer service. Under my watch as president, over the next twenty two years, Domino industries grew to a fifty million dollar company.
I retired in 1998 and in 2001 moved to Boca Raton, Fl. During my retirement I volunteered in “St. Barnabas hospital” in Livingston NJ, and “Delray Medical Center” and “West Boca Medical Center” in Boca Raton. In each instance I requested responsibilities that would allow me direct interaction with the patients, which I found extremely gratifying. My personal experience of finding a health insurance plan when I moved to Florida made me acutely aware of the healthcare crisis and the opportunity it represented not only financially, but maybe even more importantly to bring a choice to those Americans for whom their was no ability to access medical attention.
It is my “street sense” business acumen combined with my empathy and caring for my fellow human beings that set me on the course which brought me to the juncture where I, along with Steve Tucker and Sam Shatz have developed, and continue to perfect a viable solution to the healthcare crisis for so many American Families.
When people insure their car or their home or their personal belongings or even their life, they do so for financial protection. Health insurance is different! Its’ primary function is to provide the insured and their dependents with all important ACCESS! Access to doctors! Access to hospitals! Access to labs! Access to pharmacies! In short access to the entire medical community. Along with “access” a good health insurance program provides insured benefits based on the statistics of medical usage that are assignable ,which means no money out of pocket at time of service.
The underwriters are contracted with robust networks of medical providers to assure in depth availability to qualified medical providers of every specialty at lower pre negotiated rates. The benefits include a protocol of pre symptomatic wellness tests, because in medicine an ounce of prevention is not worth a pound of cure, it is worth a TON of cure!
The program includes a customer service staff that is dedicated to, and takes pride in, providing “concierge service” to the members of the program, and has a member advocate team to specifically help the members navigate the often complicated world of healthcare. A good health insurance program is an all important requirement of achieving and maintaining good health and NOTHING IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN GOOD HEALTH.
I am honored to share that on October 19, 2008 the Atlanta chapter of the NFL alumni association is awarding me the “Difference Maker” award for their “Caring for Kids” program.
When I was sixteen years old the youngest of my four brothers was born where we lived with my mother and father in a two bedroom, one bathroom apartment, in the Bronx in New York City. As the oldest sibling, taking care of babies and young children, became a natural course of events, that gave me an understanding of the innocence of children, their dependence on adults, and the joy and gratification of comforting a child in distress.
It is my belief, supported by statistics, that when it comes to healthcare, a protocol of pre-symptomatic screening can have an immeasurable effect upon the quality and longevity of life of any human being. If that human being happens to be the parent of a dependent child, the domino effect is geometric in its effect upon the child. The grief a child experiences when a parent gets seriously ill, or possibly even dies, is only the tip of the iceberg. The entire future and personal achievements, as well as the contributions to society as a whole of that child will most likely never reach their fullest potential.
As chairman of the Ican benefit group, I feel “good” that I am in a position to enable adults to take advantage of certain comprehensive pre-symptomatic healthcare testing. Although I personally may never know the positive effect upon any individual, I do know that statistics support my thesis and I sleep better at night knowing that I took part in making a difference in even one family’s life.