sales representative

benefits advisor

sales supervisor

software engineer

sales manager

eHealth

Warning – this is a long review. However, it is my sincere hope that it will reach the right person and prevent anyone else from leaving an existing lucrative sales position in favor of the carrot-dangling tactics used by eHealth hiring managers to bring in existing licensed persons, recent college graduates, or extremely hungry individuals wanting to establish a high-earning career in Medicare sales. This place is not it.  If only one person reads this review and appreciates the insight given, then my job here is done.

Chapter 1 – The Interview
Expect to be told that you can earn upwards of six figures, easily, because you will be taking incoming calls from Medicare-eligible beneficiaries looking to enroll in plans. You’re insurance or sales expertise and experience will help you be successful in this role and there is room for growth within the company. The only truth about this is that you will be taking incoming calls – lots of them.

Chapter 2 – The Job
Expect to take an influx of incoming calls from apprehensive, distrustful or confused seniors. Some of these beneficiaries are incoherent, forgetful and hard-of-hearing, or losing their voices and can barely speak or should not be trying to enroll in plans on their own. Other callers are ineligible for Medicare plans period. Still others call for general information but don’t want to switch plans or will let you know up front that they have no intention of switching plans but just want to know what’s currently being offered. Or they call because they just want you to explain the difference between a Medicare Supplement or Medicare Advantage plan. Then there are the time-wasters who are in a whole different category of their own. These are the seniors calling in who are already working with a broker or agent yet just saw a commercial wanted to know if the insurance advertised is better than what they currently have or just signed up for…or the beneficiaries who will agree to enroll in a plan with you, go through an the entire enrollment of verifying their information, answering numerous coverage questions, only to inform you right before the application is submitted that they have suddenly decided to stay with their current plan. Then there are the typical beneficiaries who need to check with their spouses, children, cousin twice removed, uncles/aunts, etc. before they decide to enroll.

Chapter 3 – Bad Leads
The good leads are distributed to specific agents selected by management. So for everyone else, that leaves the leads from those calling in response to a “partner” or “pharmacy” letter received and wanting to know if you can verify if their providers (PCPs & specialists) are in network for their current plans. It is not a Medicare Sales Rep’s job to verify providers for existing plan coverage, this is a customer service function however these calls are routed specifically to reps who are not part of the favorite’s club. These callers have no intention of changing plans, they just want help verifying benefits under their current plans.

Chapter 4 – The Lowdown
eHealth requires that you work long hours with short breaks. The pay is not commensurate with the job duties, functions, responsibilities, or emotional toll. A Medicare Sales Rep working for eHealth is exposed to an extremely high-pressure work environment from the numerous emails from management demanding for reps to stay on the phones, to the managers/supervisors constantly patrolling the aisles, break rooms or restrooms or the dishonest sales tactics used with the expectation that you will make a sale. The job itself is emotionally draining. Then there is the subtle injustices of the chosen favorite reps and call manipulation. You will consistently be lied to by management and told that all reps are in the same queue, that there is only “one queue,” yet calls from various states (E.g. service areas) are specifically routed to preferred reps. The managers intentionally route specific calls to preferred reps for successful enrollments; while purposely placing other non-favorite reps in the low-conversion queues making it impossible to make sales or bonuses. One rep could be sitting for 20 minutes waiting for a call, while another preferred rep receives back-to-back calls from good leads. There is no even playing field or fairness when it comes to the distribution of inbound calls eHealth.
As a result, there is low morale, attendance issues and high turnover. At eHealth, you are treated like another number – you are nothing more than a warm body to remain available 90% of your time there to answer one call after another like you are a robot.

The hours are long and the breaks are short (mandatory 10 hour shifts with 30 minute lunch breaks).

The job will take a mental toll on you. You will work extremely hard and may not see the fruits of your labor. To say that that the job is extremely stressful would be an understatement. This job is not only mentally taxing, emotionally draining, etc. but you will develop high blood pressure or anxiety from all of the stress of the work environment created by management. The sales director is pompous and the managers blatantly lie about your first year income earning potential among other things. 
If you decide to leave eHealth, be prepared to be informed that the company will intentionally hold your insurance carrier appointments for up to 1 year after your resignation to prevent you from going to work for another brokerage firm. 

Chapter 5 – The Pay
The compensation plan for Medicare Sales Reps at eHealth is a joke. The reps barely earn enough to cover day-to-day living expenses. Reps are paid an hourly rate of $16.00 in addition to so-called bonuses paid on a tier-level system that is adjusted to a much lower earning amount during specific enrollment periods (E.g. AEP). For example, the more enrollments a sales rep completes, the more money earned per approved application (E.g. if you complete 40 enrollments in a month × $45 per enrollment = $1,800 bonus taxed at 40% = $720 net bonus in your pocket). Now to an unseasoned sales rep this pay structure may seem great. Until you realize that according to CMS, independent licensed Medicare reps earn between $510-685 per enrollment (depends on carrier & service area), that it becomes apparent that eHealth is clearly cheating their Medicare sales reps out of what they should actually be earning. You do the math. Yet you are treated like you should feel lucky to be a part of the team. 

Chapter 6 – Other Details
The climate control within the call center is extremely uncomfortable both in the winter and during warmer months. It’s too cold inside the office yet not uncommon to see reps and supervisors wearing coats, hats and gloves at their desks because the temperature is not adjusted properly.  

Training - you are trained on the basics of Medicare, how to use the script and to do what’s in the best interest of the beneficiary. However, when you reach the sales floor you are expected to deviate from what you were taught and instead utilize dishonest sales tactics to make a sale. I’m surprised this employer is not under the microscope of CMS; they should be for their dishonest practices just to make a profit. 

As a sales rep, you will be micromanaged to the highest degree – don’t step away from your desk for too long. Supervisors and managers will be lurking near the break room and restrooms to listen-in on conversations and to ensure that you are not complaining or talking negatively about the uncomfortable atmosphere that they’ve created. Or you may receive a text message from your supervisor demanding that you get back to your desk to take calls right away. Forget wiping yourself. 

If you received a call from someone who meant to call their insurance carrier, Medicaid or Social Security, you are expected to sell them a plan – regardless of whether the caller dialed the wrong number. For example, my supervisor listened to a few of my calls just to confirm that were clearly wrong numbers as I had dis-positioned them. The supervisor then directed me to call each of those individuals back to let them know that I sold Medicare and to ask for their business. If I confirmed that the callers weren’t eligible for Medicare, then I was instructed to ask the caller if they knew anyone else who could be referred to me so that I could sell them a Medicare plan. Humiliating doesn’t even begin to explain how I felt behind the experience of being made to do something so demeaning. Until I began working at eHealth, I had never been in a position where I had to desperately beg for someone’s business - let alone place callbacks to individuals who clearly mis-dialed eHealth and ask these people if I could help with their non-existent Medicare needs.

If you are looking for consistency throughout the organization look elsewhere. Upper management has a great message and energy, but it doesn’t filter down to the agents like they probably want it to. I'm currently in the middle of my second AEP. I’ve had 5 supervisors in 11 months. 2 of them were excellent. The others were going through the motions and invested little of their time in coaching. 1 supervisor went as far as telling me I should transfer out of sales. 

The type of calls and amount of calls you get are based on ranking, even during AEP. Last year, the call volume was amazing. No time to hardly breathe. This year, there’s long wait times for those lower ranked. Some higher ranked agents get 10+ calls before a lower ranked one gets their first. It’s kind of difficult to raise your ranking if you sit there waiting for a call and all your appointments are already called for the day.   It’s discouraging and takes a toll wondering if you are still going to have a job. 

There are opportunities to move around within the different sales lines of business. I regret staying in the national benefit advisors team. I have previous supervisor experience and have thought about becoming one here. My concern is that being a supervisor is worse than being an agent. 

Monday morning we worked 2 hours on 4/4 and received an email that told us we were about to be fired and had to sit there while management could finally come on the zoom video to tell us good luck with your next job and you'll be receiving some emails. It was humiliating that everyone we had worked with knew that all the people in this meeting is getting fired right now. But it's okay management says "cause we are taking care of them". If you consider firing pregnant people and people on leave taking care of your former employees then then you have done a fantastic job. 
Anyone looking for a job and especially in the coming months for the next AEP when they need help temporarily to get them through the 6 months that is busy DONT WORK FOR THIS COMPANY. There is a reason they offer all these benefits and perks it's because they have burned so many people that they can't get good employees to work for them and once your in you quickly realize they really don't care about you or their customers it's all about sales and sales is a cutthroat business and this business won't make it much longer because of their simple lack of common decency any human being should have for another they will go under. My heart breaks for the customers who truly believe this company cares for them!

I joined EHealth believing they were not like "the others". And through AEP it was pretty much that way. Lots of calls, lots of OT and the most fair payment of commissions of any Medicare company with whom I've been associated.  But starting January 1st, things changed.  More calls off ads promising everyone grocery benefits for which not everyone qualifies. We were then supposed to "Switch" these Seniors into new plans, more-often-than-not without said grocery benefits. We were also pressured to "Pitch" an ancillary product to every person we spoke with. Residual AEP commissions were haircutted if you didn't make the ancillary product Pitch count target. It became clear to me that EHealth is indeed one of "the others": a publicly traded company needing to make their revenue and profit numbers by any means. Well, "Switching"and "Pitching" were not what I signed on for; so I voted with my feet and went to work for a company that only deals with employees retiring from major corporations. FWIW: EHealth is holding my appointments for 6 months, through 2/1/2026; thereby occluding my ability to write business for my new employer during AEP and 1/3 of OEP. Isn't that nice of them?  Don't. Just Don't.....

I was excited when I started at this company. The role sounded exciting and the job had amazing benefits. Things quickly took  a turn for the worse. The work culture and support at this company is horrible. The management as seen in previous reviews on here are horrible. If you have the choice to work for another insurance company do not choose this one. It starts off amazing then it changes quickly. This is an honest review despite the rebuttal this response may get. 

Each day you are highly pressured  even when you are putting in effort.  Management bullies and talks down on you. All employees are not held to the same standard.  It’s a nightmare.  The management team lacks diversity I think that’s part of the problem. The company needs to address how to treat employees like people. The management team needs to be monitored I’ve been yelled at by management multiple times while employed at this company.  It’s ridiculous no one is monitoring these happenings with some of the managers who have been there for awhile. Everyone should be held to a respectable standard . The perks are the benefits that’s it.  

Training: trainer could not answer a single question unless it was on a slide in PowerPoint. 10 weeks of “let’s table that until later.” 3 months later not a single question has been answered. Trainer quit immediately after my training class because half of us complained. 

After training: “I feel I need additional help and a better understanding of what is expected of me.” Supervisor: “yeah well I’m always busy, you’ll get it.” Speaking with upper management: “that not my job/department/pay range. If you don’t like it here no one is keeping you!”

1st week out of training 3 different supervisors and 2 different locations. 

They do not care about retention, turn over or employee happiness. 
This company though opened in 1997 has less culture than a Bay Area startup that’s a month old or a high turn over fast food restaurant. 

New pay scale for this years busy season was happily touted as less than last year but you should still be happy about it. CEO has over seen the demise of the last 2 companies he worked for. 

eHealth is a great place to work.  We get to sell, all day long and, the more we sell, the more people we help, the more money we make.  Pretty simple.  Our selling numbers are always displayed somewhere, so we are always being encouraged to do better, to outdo ourselves .. or our co-workers.  It's great, fun competition.  

And speaking of fun, management is realizing the better we feel, the more we sell.  So, they're trying new ways to keep us motivated, happy .. productive.  We all win that way.

The work culture is great.  There is healthy competition.  But there is also friendship and help from those who've been around longer, or who perform better than the rest.

The hardest part could be the repetitiveness of the job.

The most enjoyable part if to be able to help someone to be insured, to transcend our differences (between the clients and us, the salespeople), to find the most appropriate insurance coverage for that person ... and to be able to make our money.

This place is just awful! These people expect you to take advantage of the elderly and disabled. They expect you to force people into things even when it is not what is best for them. And if you don't, they will threaten you with your job daily. Be prepared to be called in to be abused by your supervisor and team lead together when you take a call from what is supposed to be your customer and answer a question they may have because apparently you are only there to sell and helping people you've already sold is a bad thing at this company. Some supervisors tend to know less than the agents and can only pass their AHIP or certs by cheating off of the people that are below them. If you have to take time off then the bullying will begin. I can't say enough bad about this company.

Current Employee, 6 months in. This is my favorite job I have ever had. You have to be willing to be open and learn by trial and error. My supervisor was stellar, gave us ample amount of time to train and was super encouraging. Any sales person would love to hear the fact that it’s mainly inbound calls, that they have sourced leads for you! They celebrate your wins and had great communication from my team daily. AEP time gets busy, during that period you will dedicate some extra hours but it is rewarding when you help the person out on the other end of the phone, and it’s what you make of it truly. How much you want to succeed here depends on having a good attitude, being solution based, and active listening to our customer. There is numerous benefits offered and the pay is nice too. Oh, and work from home is a plus! 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Sales representative 3 salaries reported	$54,333 per year
Benefits advisor 7 salaries reported	$21.71 per hour
Sales supervisor 9 salaries reported	$69,111 per year
Software engineer 3 salaries reported	$126,667 per year
Sales manager 3 salaries reported	$65,000 per year

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