American Republic Insurance Services Reviews

I was contacted by the agent for American Republic after putting out a request for insurance for my trucking co. employees (which are also my son). I needed a policy that would cover my employee and their family needs. The agent came to my home office and sat down with all of us and went over the policy. We specifically asked about pregnancy and what was covered. The agent said to be safe, we could buy what he called prenancy unit, 1unit=$2,000.00 extra over policy for pregnancy. We took the maximum offered (4 units).

My son's premiums are around $800 per quarter, just for him! We have had this insurance for years. They change their PPO every time they get a chance and never notify their policy holders of the changes. Consequently, numerous policy holders are paying out of network deductibles, because they have no idea the company has changed their PPOs. I find them extremely difficult to work with, and have taken as long as 12 months to pay claims! Their workers are rude and unknowledgeable. The last one I spoke with, Lee, couldn't even find providers for us when she looked! They do not cover the children's hospital, so I guess insured children should be treated as adults in American Republic's opinion. This is impossible! So we, as the consumer, get to pay the difference, if we have children who are hospitalized at the Children's Hospital! My son's rates have quadrupled in the past two years. There was nothing hidden on the application; we were honest about everything.

I bought a policy a year ago from this company and two of their incompetent agents came to my house. When asked if there is coverage for maternity, they both said yes and when asked how long we had wait for my spouse to be pregnant, they said coverage would be automatic upon approval. Now it has been a year and 2 months and my spouse is pregnant. When we called customer service to see what doctors were available in the area, the customer service agent said we did not have maternity coverage. We spent $236 a month for the last year. Over $3000 and a pregnant spouse with no coverage. It is my fault for not looking at the policy in detail when we got it but all I can say is that this company and their representatives are TERRIBLE! TERRIBLE! TERRIBLE! DO NOT trust these people. Be aware of these scam artist, they are good at what they do. I would recommend NEVER doing business with this company.

I began my policy last month. I paid the agent with a check from my checking account b/c my husband was not home. We have been waiting on a bill for this month’s premiums but one never came. Yesterday I woke up to find that my bank account was in the negative with $165 in NSF fees. Turns out that the agent must have left out the form, giving them permission to draft my account. I was never told that they would draft the premiums each month.

They didn't shut down automatic payment even after I said to terminate, now they won't give me back my over $400 premium...

This young agent, Jeff McDonald, took a $2,083.00 check from me about 2 weeks ago. He called today, 20 Feb 08, and said his home office lost the check, and would I put a stop check on it and send another one. I refused. I had bad experiences with McDonald who made an appointment with me, didn't keep it, then tried to say he'd called me and left a message for me 10 min. before the appointment time--which was a lie. He'd never called and left a message. He says his wife has a travel agency; but when I called his number once, she said she has a day care in her home, caring for their 3 and several others, and that the travel agency is his--Jeff's. These are reasons why I believe he never ever sent the check to the company.

I've had a policy with them for about 8 years. As their premiums increase at a ridculous rate, their service gets worse. You can't depend on the customer service reps to give a correct answer. You can't talk to a superviser. It seems they are all supervisors. I have started requesting a written response to all questions. Over the years, they have denied services (mamogram), don't seem to know what providers are in their network, don't send out EOB. All of which cost me time to correct. They do eventially correct their errors with a lot of effort on my part. It seems they want to keep their policy holders right where they are.

Every three months the premiums increase, and any time we have to go to the doctor they don't accept the claims from the doctors visits or emergency room. I am so sick of this going on and we aren't taking it anymore.

Abusive unexplained rate increases and unexplained discount reductions on high deductible MSA/HSA plans that my agent can't explain. He says the company rep hasn't called him back.

Despite a deductible of $4000 and a co-insurance of $5000, American Republic saw fit to increase my premium 56% from last year. This comes on top of annual increases since 2003 of 27% and 34%. I have never met my deductible and receive essentially nothing toward preventive care from this company. I'm tired of supporting the medical costs of people who eat at McDonald's and smoke cigarettes. I have cancelled this policy and, at 56 years old, am taking far less insurance, at one-third the cost, through AARP. Although it is not major medical, I refuse to subsidize these companies who care very little about the health (other than financial) of their clients.

I have 2 complaints against this company. We started out paying around 100.00 pr month for individual health for my husband. Within 2-3 years we got notice that it was going up to around 650.00. I called and was going to cancel when they assurred me that the increase was because this was an ancient policy. We took out another policy with them which has higher deductible and does not cover as much. The premium has more than doubled already and we have not had it a year yet. I know medical costs go up, but this is rediculous.

We had insurance on both our sons, one who lives primarily in Boca Raton FL. We were assured by the salesman, Dale, that the president of the company approved this. Our son in Florida broke some ribs and went to the hospital and was informed that no doctor in south Fl was in American Republic's network. He was not able to get treatment without paying himself, although we paid premiums to American Republic each month since December. I emailed the company in early May and wrote to Mr Mikkelsen 3/31/5 and have never received a reply. Now this salesman, Dale, is calling our son in Florida and threatening him - 5 times today, 8/2/5 and he has a record of each call. The person who represents American Republic has threatened to hurt our son. What can we do?

First off, the reason I cancelled this company's health insurance coverage is because it DOUBLED in ONE year. I called on December 30, 2002 and spoke with Debbie from Customer Service to cancel my health insurance, THREE days before they should have taken the premium out of my account, she told me the draft had already left their office FOUR days before it was to come out of my account. I told her the money wasn't in there. I'll make a note of that, she said. Who would know they sent the draft from their office almost a WEEK before it was to come out? They could send it out of their office a month before and I wouldn't know. It is not in their policy how early they send it out.