November 30, 2010 in Health Insurance, Insurance Articles by jferris

In the Advent of Milagros’ Misfortune

Milagros Mendez took to certain precautionary measures to prevent misgivings, miscalculations and misinformation. She was the administrative assistant at a state agency and she clocked in the hours as necessary to receive her weekly paycheck; took pride in what she did, and did what she was told. She always was careful, took many precautions and was a thorough researcher, maintaining and updating her records, her health insurance, keeping up with her pension plan.

But one day, she came into work and her boss point-blank berated her in front of her co-workers because she was one-second late coming into the door. He fired her on the spot. Milagros was stunned, bewildered and scared and was at a total loss, so she called California Health Insurance agent Matt Lockard for some advice.

For once in her life this was something that was unexpected, even as good at predicting things and taking precautionary measures as she has been known to do, she found herself in a bind: unemployed and uninsured all at once!

The fall leaves were just turning their magnificent colors and the air was getting cooler as each day passed – ghouls, scarecrows, and pumpkin patches were cropping up everywhere; soon Christmas decorations. What in the world will she do now? Does she want to go back to a nine-to-five clocking in the hours, overworked and under-appreciated, or does she want to finally pursue her dream of being a Cantonese translator, take that trip to China, a place she so long wanted to go?

California Health Insurance agent Matt Lockard reassured her at least she was covered in case of accidents and illnesses, so she set forth to forge her future, taking classes, freelancing here and there to pay her bills and what-not.

Matt Lockard contacted her after a year or so and found out that Milagros landed herself in rural California maintaining an apiary as well, with a fiancé and some land.

“We just came back from China,” Milagros told Matt. “I will e-mail you the pictures of us at the Great Wall!”

After California Health Insurance agent Matt Lockard hung up the phone with Milagros, he smiled and thought to himself that dreams do come true.

Matt Lockard – California Health Insurance agency offers health insurance plans for individuals, families, and children. Also available are California Medicare Supplement policies. Go to http://mattsinsurance4ca.com to get an instant health insurance quote.

November 21, 2010 in Health Insurance, Insurance Articles by jferris

Thanksgiving is for Forgiving

There were once two sisters, Melissa and Margie Carr, who were best of friends growing up. They did everything together; wore matching outfits. Everyone thought they were actually twins. But Melissa was really two years older than Margie, and it was Margie who always acted like she was older than Melissa, sometimes bossing her around.

But one day, along came Matt Lockard, the future California Health Insurance agent – a dapper man in his youth – who unknowingly stole the hearts of Melissa and Margie in high school. The sisters swooned and vied for his attention but Matt had his heart elsewhere. So lo and behold, the sisters grew up and did not speak to each other after their big fight over Matt Lockard. Melissa moved to Connecticut after getting out of the Army and Margie stayed in California, got married, raised a daughter and ended being a stay-at-home mom.

When Margie’s husband hurt his back from carrying a large package and couldn’t work his postal service job, Margie Carr decided to contact Matt Lockard because she heard through the grapevine that he became a superstar California Health Insurance agent.

Matt, who was elated to hear from his high school classmate, helped Margie with her predicament. Thanksgiving was right around the corner and Margie wanted so much to thank Matt, the California Health Insurance agent, for all that he did for her family by inviting him and his family over for Thanksgiving dinner.

Matt kindly and humbly accepted.

On Thanksgiving day, Margie answered the door to find Matt, his family, and a surprise that Matt brought along with him: her long, lost sister Melissa.

“Well, I decided to look up another classmate of mine, and I believe she actually belongs to you,” said Matt, the ever dapper California Health Insurance agent.

Melissa and Margie burst into tears and hugged one another.

“I can’t believe we fought over this guy!” Margie said, as she playfully and softly punched Matt’s shoulder.

“I brought you something, sis,” Melissa said after they all settled and found a place to sit in the Margie’s living room. “I got this when I was stationed in Korea and kept it just in case one day, you know, you’d come around.”

Margie opened up the present to find two tiny, identical Japanese dolls wearing the same kimonos, with one wearing a gold nametag engraved, “Melissa” on it, and the other “Margie”.

Matt Lockard – California Health Insurance agency offers health insurance plans for individuals, families, and children. Also available are California Medicare Supplement policies. Go to http://mattsinsurance4ca.com to get an instant health insurance quote.

November 20, 2010 in Health Insurance, Insurance Articles by jferris

Flew, Flu, Fluey!

Mr. Fluey never believed in getting his annual flu shot like everyone else. He believed the scare-tactic from the health industry was a hype just to boost pharmaceutical sales. He was always very healthy, took his Vitamin C and Echinacea; ate right and exercised daily, did his meditative Tai Chi every morning with the seniors. At 87 years old, he still had more than his wits about him. He still stood tall, made sure he had his best fedora on before he went out, and could still drive his car wherever he wanted to. So, what the heck? He escaped the swine flu or the various strains this year, so life is still great.

The next year, he went into his local pharmacy and ran into Matt Lockard, the California health insurance agent, teaming up with the store to promote their flu vaccination program.

“Hello, sir,” Matt greeted Mr. Fluey, “Have you gotten your flu shot yet?”

“Flew, flu, fluey!” Mr. Fluey replied, in the manner of, “Bah humbug!”

“I beg your pardon?” Matt asked.

“The flu shot are for sissies,” Mr. Fluey said. “I survived the Great Depression, Normandy, and Reagan; so certainly, the flu is nothing to me!”

“So you’re a veteran?” Matt asked with interest.

“Yeah, but I don’t go to the VA hospital, either. Don’t want to hang around vets in wheel chairs, talking about war wounds, and I don’t believe in the flu shot neither. I feel if you get something, you get it. That’s it. End of story!” Mr. Fluey said.

Matt Lockard, the California health insurance agent, looked perplexed. “So, what do you do if you get sick?”

“I just weather out the storm.”

“If you don’t believe that the flu shot can prevent you from getting the horrid flu, preventing you from seriously getting ill, and die, what is it that you do believe in, sir?”

“I believe in getting a beer,” Mr. Fluey said, shrugging his shoulders.

Later, Matt Lockard, the California health insurance agent, found himself at the local pub with Mr. Fluey.

“You know,” Matt said turning to Mr. Fluey with his beer mug. “I still get my shot every year, but here’s to your tenacity, fortitude and belief in beer!”

Matt Lockard – California Health Insurance agency offers health insurance plans for individuals, families, and children. Also available are California Medicare Supplement policies. Go to http://mattsinsurance4ca.com to get an instant health insurance quote.

November 13, 2010 in Health Insurance, Insurance Articles by jferris

Giants’ Baseball Fan Falls Over Catching Ball

Scott Boroughs was always a gangly kid who felt out of place with his peers. He had only one best friend growing up who was practically as awkward as he was.

During baseball season and many years walking past the sandlot as a kid, always watching from a distance, he never knew the fascination of baseball. Every boy got it and now every girl in America, too. His father and grandfather, who were both life-long California health insurance agents, talked about it and obsessed about it – but it all sounded like a foreign language to him. Somehow it was supposed to mean something.

But there she was. In her baseball cap, sitting alone in the corner of the bar, watching her team intently and silently rooting for them. Scott felt his heart thump faster and didn’t know why. She looked up and smiled at him briefly, then looked back at the TV.

Scott was just going to grab a beer and leave since this was the only hotel bar around. Being that it was a sports bar, he wasn’t even going to go in, but was glad he did. Scott sat next to her in silence. Finally she asked him who his favorite team was.

“I don’t have one,” he said reluctantly.

A disappointed look went over her face.

Scott went to bathroom and hurriedly called his buddy, Matt Lockard, a California health insurance agent, to help him out. Matt told him what to say to her, play by play.

That was 10 years ago.

Since then she taught him baseball, and he taught her how to play a mean game of Scrabble, memorizing all the tough two-letter words, until she became his biggest contender.

For her birthday, he wanted to surprise her and actually wanted to take her to the game. But he didn’t want to take her to any game, so he planned it just right and got front-row tickets to see their team who made it to the playoffs!

The first hit was a foul ball that was coming their way. Scott, who never played a lick of baseball in all his life, stood up with his baseball mitt and dove like a pro after the ball like he saw those players do so many times.

However, when Scott caught the ball, he stood up for one brief moment to find that he was teetering at the edge of the railing and fell over the balcony with a big thud.

Matt Lockard, the California health insurance, always made sure Scott was up to par with his health insurance and Scott didn’t have to worry about a thing but to heal his broken leg and bruised body.

The cameras caught Scott’s heroic catch and blunder, and all of America saw Scott’s instant replay that even went viral on the Internet, that he became an overnight sensation.

Not bad for a gangly, awkward kid who never knew baseball!

“I think you need to stick to Scrabble,” his wife said.

Matt Lockard – California Health Insurance agency offers health insurance plans for individuals, families, and children. Also available are California Medicare Supplement policies. Go to http://mattsinsurance4ca.com to get an instant health insurance quote.

September 9, 2010 in Health Insurance, Insurance Articles by jferris

Back to School Bike Accident has Dorothy Reeling

California Health Insurance agent Matt Lockard did his best to cheer Dorothy up, but she still feels like “she’s in Oz” since crashing her 10-speed into her high school’s cement façade.

The first few days back in school felt like a pleasant dream to Dorothy. Each day that week, she rode her spiffy new 10-speed to her high school in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Her purple bike had been safely tethered to the crowded bike rack each day, the 12-mile freeway ride proving relatively uneventful. She was a junior now, on track in her college prep courses for UCLA, and she was caught up on her homework and having a blast. But on the Friday of that fateful first week, the health insurance plan that her beloved great-grandfather had purchased from California Health Insurance agent Matt Lockard, proved fortuitous. Her great-grandfather, known in the neighborhood as a cowardly lion because of his pacifist views, had served as Dorothy’s guardian since she’d been in 7th grade and her parents had both died of “that rash.”

But on that fateful Friday, she suffered more than scrapes and bruises, more than mere contusions, when she smacked into the side wall of her school’s cement façade. She hadn’t been paying attention, she later admitted. Dorothy was knocked unconscious, but she’d recovered a bit by the time the ambulance came. Still, she was somewhat delirious and kept yelling: “Where art thou, great-grandfather, ye cowardly lion?” as if it were a mantra.

In her hospital room, the surroundings were unfamiliar, surreal, and in a word, strange. Even when her beloved great-grandfather came a calling, and brought along California Health Insurance agent Matt Lockard, she kept referring to that stoic man from Ventura as “the Tin Man,” which was quite unfair as Matt does indeed have a heart, and it beats, yeah, it beats. Finally, he showed that heart, saying to Dorothy, “Your great-grandfather loves you, and besides, everything’s covered and I’ve brought your homework.” All the time, Matt smiled, pleasantly showing his teeth – including several molars of the type never before seen in the mythical land of Oz.

But at the mention of homework, Dorothy snapped out of her trance, sort of. “Thank you, Tin Man,” she said, smiling.

To learn more please visit: http://www.mattsinsurance4ca.com

September 9, 2010 in Health Insurance, Insurance Articles by jferris

Mommy Spacek Goes Back to School

Lizzie Spacek was 64 years old, but was determined to earn her GED. That said, she learned that being a pedestrian in the city was fraught with danger – just like Matt Lockard, her California Health Insurance agent, had duly warned her.

Mommy’s intentions had been good. She was walking into the city to her old high school, North South High, and felt all the enthusiasm of any crazed student. The left onto Highborn Street left her so excited, especially as she successfully dodged traffic. She opened the door to the high school, and what happened next seemed like slow motion. A bell rang. Mommy got trampled by the pitter-patter of younger feet, lots of them. She’d been smacked to the floor of the main hall next to the principal’s office, and it seemed nobody noticed, even though she’d screamed. When the crowd had finally sifted, she spotted a sign that said “GED Students,” and felt her eagerness try to return. But getting up was another story. Lizzie felt a sharp pain as she gazed at the long corridor, now emptied. What was it? Her tailbone hurt. Since the huge high school now seemed relatively silent, she screamed again.

Lizzie Spacek thought back to a conversation she’d had just last week with her California Health Insurance agent, that pleasant and goateed Matt Lockard. “You’ll be glad that you bought coverage,” he’d warned. She’d hardly been paying attention because she’d been so eager to finish high school after all these years. Her mind compass was pointing North South. But Matt turned out to be right. High schools can be dangerous places for a 64-year-old, yes indeed. Pedestrians can be so cruel when they’re young.

Finally somebody came. It was the assistant principal. “Why aren’t you in class, young lady?” he said. But when he looked again, he could see that she was older, like a student’s grandmother. “Are you okay? He asked, still sounding condescending.

“What do you think?” Lizzie shrieked. And then, in tears, “I’m GED.” But all she could do on that day was point at the sign.

An ER visit later, it turned out her tailbone was merely bruised. It still would have cost money, but Lizzie was covered, thanks to Matt. She called Matt at his Ventura office just to thank him.

“When are you going back to school?” he asked.

“Tomorrow evening instead of during the regular school day,” she said. “Would you like to be my escort?”

To learn more please visit: http://www.mattsinsurance4ca.com

September 9, 2010 in Health Insurance, Insurance Articles by jferris

First Day Jitters

The first day of high school can be very scary indeed. Even more so when, not only is it your first day, but you are also the new kid in school. It also helps when a California Health Insurance agent has you covered.

After his 8th grade school year and its tagalong summer vacation, Justin and his family moved to California from Ohio. The move was bewildering to Justin, especially since he hadn’t had time to make any new friends yet.

As the big day at his California school arrived, Justin was both excited and anxious. What would the kids at his new school be like? He could hardly sleep the night before. “Justin, it’s time to get up!” his mom yelled. He still felt tired. “I’m up, mom,” he yelled back. This tricked her once, and then worked twice more before his snarling mom dragged him out of bed.

Still groggy, he managed to find his mouth to stuff his breakfast in, but a teenager doesn’t have to be conscious to do that. The bus stop beckoned.

When he got there, he was the only kid standing. Bewildered, he waited. “Where’s the bus?” Justin thought out loud. He decided to just go back home and ask his mom for a ride.

Justin was crossing the street to get to his house when he noticed a ten-dollar bill laying in the middle of the street. As he stopped to pick it up, a car came along much too fast. The driver, a man with huge pimples all over his face, slammed on his brakes and swerved, but still clipped the 14-year-old who was still clasping the ten dollar bill. Justin’s mom saw the accident and came running out.

At the hospital, doctors discovered no major injuries, except for a fractured pinky. “We’re lucky we saw the California Health Insurance agent last week,” Justin’s mom said, while looking at her son as he sat on a hospital bed. “How’s that pinky?” “It hurts, mommy,” he said. She glared at him. “You’re not a baby anymore. Stop your whining. If you’d gotten enough sleep, this accident never would have happened. Besides, you’re getting out in a half hour and I’m sending you to school tomorrow.” Justin knew he wasn’t likely to sleep better with the knowledge that his first day at his new school would now be everyone else’s second.

Matt Lockard – California Health Insurance agency offers health insurance plans for individuals, families, and children. Also available are California Medicare Supplement policies. Go to http://mattsinsurance4ca.com to get an instant health insurance quote.

September 9, 2010 in Health Insurance, Insurance Articles by jferris

That Klutzy Stage

Seventh grader Aaron B. Mason’s first day back at school featured an inevitable catastrophe. But thanks to the foresight of his parents and the family plan they purchased from a California Health Insurance agent in Long Beach, Aaron’s recuperation wasn’t also a financial catastrophe.

Aaron, a lanky 12-year-old about to begin 7th grade, was in the middle of his pubertal growth spurt. His wrists and ankles seemed barely attached by their tendons and sinews to his arms and legs, and like a lot of boys his age, he was at that klutzy stage. “Aaron, pick up your feet!” his loud-voiced mom would scream seeing her son stumble off, embarrassing him in front of his friend. He had only one, another young klutz named Ralph, but Aaron’s mom didn’t extend her nagging ear-piercing soprano to her neighbor’s kid. Miraculously, Aaron, who might have felt safer trapped during puberty in a mason jar, didn’t get seriously injured during that summer before entering 7th grade with the rest of his tween-aged peers. Other than a few cuts and bruises experienced as consequences received from clumsily falling over steps and tripping over obstacles of sundry description, Aaron managed to escape that summer unscathed.

But the first day of school was another story. During first period, right after homeroom, Aaron was already late. He started running to his algebra class in the hall, and by the time his gym teacher could finish yelling, “Hey Mason! Pick up your feet!” Aaron had become tangled up in his own legs. He tripped, falling flat on his chin and smacking his jaw against the middle school’s hardwood floor, just polished by the school janitor minutes before. Aaron was knocked cold and carried out of his school into a waiting ambulance on a stretcher.

Ralph went to see Aaron in the hospital, and was there when his friend woke up in his bed. So was a California Health Insurance agent, who happened to be courteously checking in on the Mason kid. He was a tall man with glasses whom neither Ralph nor Aaron immediately recognized. “Who is he?” Aaron whispered through clenched teeth to his friend, his jaw shot full of painkillers.

“I’m Clark Kent, a California Health Insurance agent,” the strange man replied. Oddly, he also spoke through clenched teeth – but in his case it was merely an idiosyncrasy.

Matt Lockard – California Health Insurance agency offers health insurance plans for individuals, families, and children. Also available are California Medicare Supplement policies. Go to http://mattsinsurance4ca.com to get an instant health insurance quote.

August 5, 2010 in Health Insurance, Insurance Articles by jferris

California Health Insurance Agent Does His Utmost to Celebrate National Chocolate Chip Day

Matt Lockard tried to make his Ventura office a place of cookies and milk on August 4th – to no avail.

He knew what day it was going to be on the morrow. Since boyhood, he’d eaten chocolate chip cookies of every variety, according to their kind – according to their chip. He liked them with milk as far as cookies went, he wasn’t that much into sweets, but tomorrow was an extraordinary holiday celebrated with panache that was definitely not Christmas, or even Halloween. What kind of milk would he serve for his clients as they made their appearances on that festive day? Last year he’d attempted goat’s milk, but it had strangely curdled before its time. He liked almond milk with cookies, or even coconut milk, but would never skimp by going skim. He’d be prepared on this 4th of August – a true feast day precisely a month beyond the anniversary of our nation’s birth.

Matt laid out the platters of fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies, a Tollhouse variety that his daughter had lovingly baked, and she was going to come by the health insurance office around lunch time to see how things were going. This year Matt’s clients would understand, and grasp the holiday’s significance, without pigging out on the cookies.

When the first client appeared, a 74-year-old intent on Medigap coverage, it began. “Bet you can’t eat just one …” Matt hinted, nearly pleading. She couldn’t. Thirty-four cookies dwindled to twenty-six before she was gone just eight minutes later.

The cookies have to last all day this year, Matt mused, but such a well-intentioned hope was a pipedream.

By twelve minutes past ten in the morning, every last cookie was gone.

Around noon, Matt’s dutiful daughter came by, already a teenager with great intentions, hopes, and dreams, she was naïve, Matt thought, can’t she tell that the cookies have all been eaten, that National Chocolate Chip Day and California Health Insurance clients were unfortunately incompatible, all those prudent souls guided by that most basic of human impulses, an instinct popularly referred to as a “sweet tooth”? These scavengers had devoured all – leaving not even a crumb. What did this mean? It could mean only that Matt would try to celebrate the elusive August festive day again next year, for once to get the cookies to last through the precious day.

To learn more please visit: http://www.mattsinsurance4ca.com

August 5, 2010 in Health Insurance, Insurance Articles by jferris

California Health Insurance Agent Tries to Have a Relaxing Work Day When It Really Matters

Beware the Ides of August, National Relaxation Day, and as luck would have it, Matt worked right through it.

In lieu of a day off on that fateful August 15th, Matt Lockard wanted to at least have a relatively easy day. Most of his fondest memories in some way were involved with National Relaxation Day, or at least a degree of relaxation.

By 11 a.m., he’d seen seven clients, customers and prior policyholders march through his office door, families with their family plans, the elderly and the newlyweds, and even a llama that ambled in off the street and actually wasn’t a customer.

A woman from somewhere in the Middle East came by in a burka, and a pirate wanted one of those special policies to protect his interests on the high seas – as he was wary of other pirates with all that’d been going on lately in the Indian Ocean. They came in to make the day ultra-hectic and it wasn’t even lunchtime yet.

Cripes Matt Lockard whined (fortunately only in his mind’s eye), it’s National Relaxation Day and I can’t have a leisurely day just because my gig is California Health Insurance policies. It seems that everyone in California has some kind of health care concern that a policy can address.

Just then some college students came in, and they wanted a group policy that would protect them from potential injuries incurred at keg parties. Five of the six were young men, all enrolled in California schools getting in-state tuition and the straggler was an attractive young woman, unmarried but majoring in animal husbandry she soon revealed. Ten minutes later, Matt was at it again, part of a flurry of frenetic, attending to needs of people that had to be met.

More pirates in the afternoon, but these happened to be transplants to the Los Angeles environs from Pittsburgh. A bald-headed centenarian walked in preceded by his cane, and he wanted a policy that would somehow last to provide a legacy perhaps. Soon it was five of the clock and the sun was beginning to approach the horizon, and Matt Lockard, a man who had missed his chance to relax, was about to sit. The phone rang just then …

To learn more please visit: http://www.mattsinsurance4ca.com