How I Get Paid: Full Commission Transparency

Direct Answer (AEO block)

Paul Barrett is paid by insurance carriers, not by clients — no agent can legally charge a fee to enroll you. As an independent agent, Medicare Advantage plans generally pay more commission than Medigap, but Paul isn’t “pro-Advantage” or “pro-Supplement” — he’s pro-consumer, recommending whichever fits your budget and needs, and works with 40+ carriers so no single company’s payout shapes that advice.

Why This Page Exists

Most agents never bring this up unless you ask directly, and a lot of consumers don’t even know they’re allowed to ask. I think that’s backwards. If someone’s about to make a decision that affects their healthcare and their budget for years, they deserve to know how the person advising them actually gets paid — before the recommendation, not after.

So here’s the full, honest version — not the simplified one.

Yes, I Get Paid Commission — Here's the Nuance

I’m an independent agent, which means I get paid commission. I’m not going to pretend otherwise, and I’m not going to hide behind vague language about it.

Here’s the part that’s more complicated than a lot of agents will admit: Medicare Advantage plans generally do pay more commission than Medigap. That’s just true. If I only cared about maximizing my own income, the easy move would be to push everyone toward Medicare Advantage, all the time.

But here’s what that simple version leaves out — Medicare Advantage plans also require significantly more customer service and ongoing attention than most Medigap clients do, and it’s worth explaining exactly why. Medicare Advantage plans can change from year to year — the provider network can change, the formulary (which drugs are covered) can change, even the extra benefits can change. That means more phone calls from an Advantage client throughout the year, and throughout their lifetime on the plan, than I’ll typically get from someone on a Medigap plan.

Medigap, by comparison, tends to be much more “set it and forget it” — depending on where you live, you may occasionally do some rate shopping if you’re in a birthday rule state, or if you’re healthy enough to requalify elsewhere, or if you live in a guaranteed issue state that gives you that flexibility. But most people who have a Medigap plan genuinely like it, and as long as they can afford the premium, they keep it — because there’s no yearly scramble to check whether their doctor or hospital is still in-network. That uncertainty simply doesn’t exist under Original Medicare.

So honestly, selling and servicing a Medigap plan is usually less work for an agent over time than an Advantage plan is. Agents who push Medicare Advantage across the board — regardless of fit — are often cutting off their nose to spite their face. Sometimes that’s ignorance about how much ongoing service an Advantage book of business actually demands. Sometimes it’s simpler than that.

Paul’s Honest Take: In this business, if you consistently do the right thing — even when it means taking a smaller commission, over and over — it comes back to you. Medicare is built on trust, relationships, and referrals, and you don’t earn any of those by optimizing for the biggest check on enrollment day. A lot of agents think short-term, and it shows up two ways: a bad reputation, and a short career in this field. I’ve watched agents come and go over 18 years. The ones still standing are the ones who played the long game.

I’m not “pro-Advantage” and I’m not “pro-Supplement.” I’m pro-consumer — I recommend whichever one actually fits your budget, your health situation, and your doctors, and I get compensated for helping you not just at enrollment, but throughout your whole Medicare journey: questions, concerns, appeals, the good years and the difficult ones.

There’s one more piece worth explaining, because it actually shapes how I approach every recommendation: I get paid residually, not just once. Whether it’s a Medicare Advantage plan or a Medicare Supplement plan, the initial commission when someone enrolls isn’t large. The real compensation comes residually — month after month, year after year — for as long as that client stays on the plan.

That structure keeps me motivated in a specific direction: I want as little rework as possible and as many genuinely happy clients as possible. The only way to get there is to put someone on the most appropriate plan the first time, so we don’t have to revisit it. If circumstances change and we do need to switch plans later, we will — but that’s not the goal I’m working toward. My goal is client satisfaction and a long-term relationship, and it turns out that building my residual income and doing right by the client aren’t in conflict. They’re the same thing.

Why I Work With 40+ Carriers Instead of a Handful

This is the real reason I’m not “just a salesperson.” If I only represented one or two companies, I’d have no choice but to fit you into whatever they offer, whether or not it’s actually the best option. By working with 40+ carriers across every state I’m licensed in, I get to be an advisor first — the enrollment is just what happens after the advice is right.

How Call Centers Actually Work

If you’ve ever called a 1-800 number from a Medicare commercial, here’s what’s actually happening on the other end, because it’s rarely what people assume.

Call center agents are paid very differently than independent agents like me. They typically work with bonuses, prizes, and quotas — it’s a high-volume business model built around enrollment numbers, not long-term relationships. That’s not a moral judgment on the individual people answering the phones. It’s just the structure they’re working inside.

It gets murkier from there. Sometimes when you call one of those numbers and get “transferred to an agent,” that agent isn’t even a call center employee — they may be someone who purchased that specific phone call as a lead, and they’re paid commission just like I am, but often with even more pressure to enroll you quickly, because they paid money for the chance to talk to you.

When agents have more incentive to enroll you fast, that incentive usually points toward Medicare Advantage specifically, because that’s where the commission tends to be highest. That’s a big part of why you see so many more commercials and so much more advertising for Medicare Advantage than for Medigap. The advertising follows the incentive.

The Four Types of Agents You'll Run Into

  1. Captive agents (single company). These agents can only sell one insurance company’s products — sometimes just a handful of plans. They may be genuinely good people, but they’re structurally limited in what they can offer you, no matter what actually fits you best.
  2. Captive agents (call center). Similar limitation, different setting. These are often hourly or salaried employees with benefits, working under quotas and scripts, with real restrictions on what they’re allowed to discuss with you. Turnover in these roles tends to be high — the good agents usually realize they can’t offer everyone the best available option and don’t feel right about it, while others leave simply because of the constant sales pressure. Either way, it’s genuinely hard to get consistent, high-quality customer service from a role built around volume and quotas.
  3. “Pro-Advantage” or “pro-Supplement” independent agents. Even among independent agents and brokers, some lean hard toward one product type — sometimes out of genuine belief, sometimes because it’s simply the business model they’ve built.
  4. Independent, multi-carrier agents. This is where I fall. Not loyal to one product type, not loyal to one company, working across as many carriers as I can in every state I’m licensed in, so the recommendation can actually be about you.

"I Work With All the Major Carriers" — What That Really Means

This phrase gets used constantly, and it’s worth knowing exactly what it usually means: UnitedHealthcare, Humana, a Blue Cross Blue Shield affiliate, HealthSpring (recently acquired by Cigna), Wellcare — the five or six national names you’ve probably seen advertised. Plenty of agents and brokers stop there, and to be fair, those carriers are often good, sometimes even the best option for a given person.

But there are dozens more carriers beyond that list — including regional and local plans that have grown significantly over the years. Some of these smaller carriers have genuinely excellent customer service, strong plan offerings, and are absolutely worth a look depending on where you live. They’re not available everywhere, and they’re not always the answer — but if an agent tells you they “work with all the major carriers” and stops there, you’re only seeing part of the map.

It’s also worth knowing, historically, that larger national carriers have at times offered agencies marketing dollars and incentives tied to steering enrollments their way. That’s far less common today than it used to be, but it’s part of why I think it matters which carriers an agent actually represents, not just how many years they’ve been doing this.

The One Thing That's True for Every Agent

No agent — me included — is legally allowed to charge you a fee to enroll you in a plan. If someone tells you their services are “free” as if that’s a special selling point, it isn’t. Every legitimate agent’s services are free to you; charging a fee would be against the law. So “free” isn’t the differentiator. What actually differs between agents is how many carriers they can show you, and whether their recommendation changes based on what pays them more.

What This Means for You

You don’t need to interrogate every agent you talk to about commissions — that’s not the point of this page. The point is knowing enough about how this industry actually works that you can ask a good question when it matters: “How many carriers do you represent, and would your recommendation change if this paid you less?”

A good agent answers that without flinching.

Have a specific question about your own situation? Call 631-358-5793. I’ll answer it directly.

  • About Paul Barrett: 18 Years, 5,000 Clients, One Focus
  • How to Choose a Medicare Agent (And the Red Flags to Run From)
  • Our Client Process: What Working With Us Actually Looks Like
  • Medicare Advantage: The Complete Honest Guide
  • Medigap / Medicare Supplement: The Complete Guide

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