How Much Can You Make Selling Health Insurance?
Is Selling Health Insurance and Medicare Profitable?
The health insurance industry offers lucrative opportunities for agents, especially those specializing in Medicare and Affordable Care Act (ACA) policies. If you’re considering a career as an insurance agent or looking to expand your services, understanding potential earnings is crucial. Let’s look at the factors that influence your income, strategies to increase sales, and ultimately how much you can make!
What Determines a Health Insurance Agents Income?
There are multiple factors that go into a health insurance agents income. Pay & commissions can range between:
1. agent type. If you have an upline, such as an agency or an FMO, they are in charge of your commission. How much you receive for a sale depends on your upline. Some may pay you wages and low commission. Others may pay solely off commission.
2. policy type. Medicare plans, ACA plans, Medicare supplements and ancillaries all have different commissions. What you sell heavily influences your imbursement per sale.
3. your performance. One of the given, but important, parts of the industry. If you sell more, you earn more. The bigger the book of business you create, the more you continue to earn.
4. your location. Some states, such as California and New Jersey, pay a little more in commissions.
Earnings from your sales can build steadily over time due to renewals. Agents who build a large book of business can earn passive income for years.
How Much Can You Earn Selling Medicare?
The commissions for Medicare Advantage enrollment and renewals in 2025 is $313. Medicare pays agent commissions upon the first effective date of the enrolled plan. New-to-Medicare enrollments earn double the commission that a standard enrollment does. In 2025, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) set the maximum initial commission for new enrollments at approximately $626 per beneficiary in most states. For each year your client renews in the plan you sold, you will receive the standard commission as well.
For Medicare Supplement Plans, commission rates are often around 20% for new enrollees. Renewals typically earn 10% years following.
Commissions for Part D plans are lower, with a maximum of around $93 for new enrollments and lower renewal fees.
How Much Can You Make Selling ACA?
ACA Agents are paid on a PMPM (Per Member Per Month) Basis. You will be paid the commission rate every month for each member you enroll. Unlike Medicare, ACA commissions don’t renew at a lower imbursement rate. You receive the same rate PMPM for as long as the policy is active.
Commission rates vary by carrier, state, and plan types. Some carriers even have tiered commissions that increase your rate if you meet a certain amount of sales.
As an example, if you enroll a family of 4 at a commission rate of $20, that’s $80 a month and $960 a year. You would start receiving $80 the month after you enroll the family, and every subsequent month the policy is active.
How Can I Maximize My Earnings?
There will always be ways to improve your processes. You can always learn more in this industry. As a baseline, here are our top tips to maximizing your earnings:
1. Consider partnering with an FMO. FMO’s like Agent Boost provide support to agents through a variety of means, such as leads, training, tools and business support. Partnering with an FMO can make a huge difference in your career from just getting started to becoming an agency of your own. Learn more about Agent Boost opportunities!
2. Offer Both Medicare and ACA Policies: Selling only one line of business limits your potential client base by millions of people. The more people you can help, the more people you can sell.
3. Focus on Customer Retention: Renewals can build you a long-lasting, compounding income. Establishing a trusting relationship with your clients and retaining them as clients is what builds your book of business.
4. Build Relationships with Multiple Carriers: Having access to a wide range of products helps you match clients with the best policies. The better the fit of the plan you can offer, the happier your clients will be.
5. Leverage Lead Generation Tools: Use digital marketing strategies, referrals, and partnerships to generate consistent leads. Partnering with an FMO or agency can also take much of the stress off of you to generate leads.
6. Stay Updated on Regulations: Compliance with CMS guidelines and ACA updates protects your business and reputation.
Realistic Income Expectations
While income varies by effort, location, and experience, here are some general benchmarks:
- Part-Time Agents: Usually average $20,000 to $50,000 annually by focusing on a limited client base.
- Full-Time Agents: Good producers that are determined, motivated and hard-working often earn between $75,000 and $150,000 per year.
- Top Producers: Highly successful agents and agency owners can exceed $200,000 annually by building a large, loyal client base and expanding their sales teams.
If you would like to learn more about how much opportunity there is in the industry, get in touch. We’d love to help you get started in the way the best works for you!
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