Before she joined CBIZ, Inc. in Cleveland, health insurance agent Ingrid Martin was a casualty of higher healthcare costs. Laid off from a privately held healthcare benefit company, Martin began searching for another position at the height of Obamacare malaise. A chance encounter with the President himself reversed her fortunes, and today she excels as an account executive and continuing education instructor at CBIZ.
Insurance Business caught up with Martin to learn more about her career and what it was like to speak to the Commander in Chief.
Q. How did you initially get into the insurance profession?
A. Begrudgingly, actually. I was going to school part-time and needed a job, and my neighbor told me about a data entry position for a local insurance agency. I started out at the bottom doing quotes for brokers, and soon it became my career.
I spent a year-and-a-half unemployed when national healthcare became a threat, and I really did not think there would be a broker industry in 2014. I was so lucky to get back into it in the middle of it all.
Q. What was it like to speak to President Obama? How did that come about?
A. It was amazing, actually. I had just come back from Washington, D.C. from NAHU’s Capital Conference [in 2010] when I heard President Obama was coming to my town to speak. I thought, “I’ve got to hear what this gentleman has to say.”
I was able to get a front row seat and afterwards, he noticed me and came up to me and asked what I thought [of the Affordable Care Act]. Lucky for me, I’m a dreamer and planned what I would say if the President ever asked me that. I had an answer—he just did not like it.
After that, I was on radio stations all over the place. It was a whirlwind of a week.
Q. Did that media exposure help you find a new position?
A. It did. A gentleman flew me out to Boise and hired me. But, what actually helped me get the job I have now is my continued membership with NAHU. I think people see that someone who has continued to pay those dues despite not having a job has a real dedication to the industry—that it’s a passion and not just a job.
The up-to-date news from the hill is amazing, and the support they give brokers is fantastic. The camaraderie is also wonderful. I have people all over the country I can contact for help for a client if I need to.
Q. What’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given in your career?
A. To treat your clients the way they want to be treated—that’s the platinum rule of ethics. Don’t treat them the way you want to be treated, because it could be different. You need to ask them, “How do you want this relationship to work?” And then you fit your methods accordingly.
Q. How would you change the industry, if you had the power?
A. As I said to President Obama, the root cost of health insurance is the cost of healthcare. More efficient electronic health records and other aspects of how we get care from providers would be the ideal fix to higher insurance costs.
Q. If you could invite any three people in the world to dinner, living or dead, who would they be and why?
A. Ronald Reagan—I just think he was a genius and one of the best American presidents. I’d invite President Obama again too, because I think Reagan could school him on a couple of things. And then I’d invite my Nanna because she’d give them both a piece of her mind.
Q. If you weren’t in insurance, where would you be?
A. I would probably be in the medical profession. I just like to help people, and if I can’t help them understand their benefits I would like to help them feel better.
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