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October 15, 2020 at 02:36 AM
Google says the Medicare plan sales season that starts today could be pretty good.
Medicare Advantage plan sales could be somewhat stronger than they were last year, and all of the fuss about the Medicare plan annual election period could also pull Medicare supplement (Medigap) insurance sales out of their COVID-19 pandemic funk.
We used Google’s Google Trend tool to compare search activity for the terms “Medicare Advantage” and “Medicare supplement.”
Activity level for the term “Medicare Advantage” hit 77 during the week ending Oct. 10. That’s up 2.7% from the activity level for the comparable week in 2019.
The activity level for “Medicare supplement” held steady at 36.
Resources
- A Google Trends comparison of search activity for the terms “Medicare Advantage and “Medicare supplement” are available here.
- An article about Walmart jumping into the Medicare plan agency business is available here.
We also looked at how those two search terms performed over the past five years.
The Medicare plan annual election period runs from Oct. 15 through Dec. 7 every year. The annual election period rules apply only to Medicare Advantage plans and Medicare Part D prescription drug plans.
Medigap policies come with their own once-in-a-lifetime six-month open enrollment period.
But, over the past five years, Google search activity for “Medicare supplement” has mostly moved in sync with search activity for “Medicare Advantage.”
Here’s how the five-year comparison looks:
2015 to 2018: ”Medicare Advantage” activity was about the same as “Medicare supplement” activity most of the time, and about 30% to 50% higher during the peak weeks in each annual election period.
