Five Agent Groups To Confer In D.C. On Health Care Reform

NU Online News Service, June 9, 4:06 p.m. EDT

Five insurance trade groups from the property-casualty and life and health insurance businesses said they will meet next month in Washington to discuss health insurance reform concerns and lobby lawmakers.

The organizations, said the session for producers and advisors will be held July 14-15 and includes representatives from The Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers (CIAB), the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America (IIABA), AHIA-NAIFA Health and Employee Benefits (AHIA), the National Association of Health Underwriters (NAHU), and the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors (NAIFA).

With both the House and Senate poised to consider health care reform legislation in late July, the event is an opportunity for the health insurance producer community to discuss their concerns with their representatives, the group's said.

Collectively, the organizations represent more than 500,000 professional health insurance advisors, agents, brokers, consultants and employee benefit specialists, according their statement.

Joel Wood, senior vice president of government affairs for the CIAB, said plans call for a briefing with attendees on the issues facing them followed by producers visiting their legislative representatives to discuss the issues and their potential impact on producers.

Mr. Wood said a draft bill from Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., who is chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee, is very troubling and would "do great violence to the employer group market place," substantially diminishing the role of agents and brokers and have a negative impact on maintaining private health plans.

Part of the bill, said Mr. Wood, would eliminate creation of self-insurance health programs for businesses with 250 lives or less, instead putting them into government backed plans. He said under the Kennedy plan, producers would not be allowed to market the government plans because of a perception of conflict of interest.

For CIAB members alone, representing 270 member firms that are either major regional or national brokers, a significant part of their business involves employee benefits, and while all of their income is not derived from health insurance plans, it does form the basis for the marketing of their services, he said.

"This is a loaded gun pointed to our heads," complained Mr. Wood, adding the Kennedy plan is a "fast track to a single payer plan."

Charles Symington, senior vice president for Government Affairs for the IIABA said, his organization, "strongly supports reform of the nations health care system, both to deal with the issue of the uninsured as well as to find a solution to the drastic increase in health care costs."

IIABA, he said "is very concerned with Congressional consideration of a government run plan to unfairly compete with the private market. We believe that if a government run plan were created, in the long run, such a mechanism would lead to a single payer system that would harm consumers."

Underscoring the stake IIABA members have in the plan, he noted that on average, benefits plans represent 14 percent of their book, a figure that can not be ignored especially in the current economy.

The event will be held on Capitol Hill and the Grand Hyatt Washington in Washington, D.C.