Health Care Plan Should Include Us, Agents Urge Congress

NU Online News Service, MAY 14, 2:49 p.m. EDT

WASHINGTON–Don't create a health care insurance program that cuts us out of the market, insurance agents' and brokers' trade groups have written congressional leaders.

The letter follows proposals for a public health insurance system that would let customers buy products directly online.

In their message to leadership the organizations noted that they collectively represent more than 500,000 health insurance agents, brokers, advisors, consultants and employee benefit specialists, and that their members play a key role in providing health care to individuals and employers.

Their letter was sent as Congress debates ways to reform health care delivery systems so that costs can be reduced enough to provide health care to the estimated 43 million uninsured Americans.

One of the proposals would create a "public" option that would allow Medicare and Medicaid to provide plans that would compete with private insurers as a means of forcing insurers to cut the costs of their coverage offerings.

And, Monday, trade groups representing six health care providers, including health insurers, hospitals, doctors and unions, presented a letter to President Obama pledging to work to reduce health care costs by $2 trillion over the next decade as a means of facilitating health care reform.

The major health insurance agent/broker groups signing the letter to congressional leaders included AHIA-NAIFA Health and Employee Benefits, the Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers, the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America, the National Association of Health Underwriters and the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors.

The letter was sent late yesterday to the chairman and ranking minority members of the six committees in the House and Senate that are dealing with health care reform.

Another proposal, outlined this week in a working paper drafted by the staff of the Senate Finance Committee, providing policy options for legislation, would create a health insurance exchange by allowing individuals to buy health insurance through the Internet.

This option would create a Web portal, or "Health Insurance Exchange" – or multiple exchanges – that would direct consumers to every health coverage option available in their zip code.

In a meeting earlier this week, representatives of the trade groups voiced concern over this option because it could possibly reduce or eliminate the role agents play in providing health care insurance for those participating in either the group or individual markets.

The Web portal, as outlined by the Senate Finance Committee, would standardize the health insurance enrollment application, the format companies use to present their insurance plans and the marketing rules.

The new Web portal would be publicized and would have a call center for customer support, the paper says. It will enable users to determine if they are eligible for health insurance subsidies or public programs, according to the proposal.

"The exchange would also allow consumers without access to the Internet to enroll through the mail or in person in a variety of locations," the proposal says.

The producers' concerns about public option plans and the Health Insurance Exchange were voiced in a part of the letter which said, "We would have strong concerns with any legislative proposal that would deprive access to the services of professional agents, brokers and consultants.

"There is no way a governmental agency in some far-off location could match the service and value agents and brokers bring to their clients," the letter adds.

"Every day hundreds of thousands of professional health insurance agents and brokers help individuals and employers purchase health insurance coverage that best fit their specific budget and health care needs," the groups wrote.

"More importantly, agents and brokers help their clients resolve day-to-day issues that may arise after the point of sale," they added.

"As benefit specialists, professional health insurance agents and brokers design benefit plans, resolve claims disputes, conduct enrollments/terminations, assist with COBRA [continuation health insurance] administration, and solve complex billing issues," the letter explained.