Health Insurance Blog

Jaclyn Schiff a writer for Kaiser Health news recently penned an article about insurance agents and how impending health care reform might impact those that sell individual health insurance.  According to the article, the changes that are being considered could significantly change the way they do business.

Schiff spoke to two health insurance agents to find out how they are approaching possible changes.  Excerpts from those interviews  are included below.

Q: Are you concerned with how health care reform will change your business?

A: …. An individual mandate is an excellent thing and that there will be guaranteed issue for anyone who wants health insurance. I sell a lot of individual health insurance policies and it is frustrating for people who have minor illnesses or expenses and can’t get covered. ….Guaranteed issue will allow me to spend more time finding the right products and not to have to go through underwriting ….and then getting turned down for insurance coverage

Q: Do you think a public plan would put health insurance companies out of business

A: Absolutely…..the consumer is going to say, oh, it’s less expensive for me to go on this government sponsored plan.  However,  They don’t realize that in the long run, when taxes are factored in, they might be paying more because of it.

Q:  What have agents and brokers been doing to prepare for changes

A: Many agents and brokers have been selling more ancillary products such as dental insurance, vision insurance etc.

Miami-Dade county in Florida has teamed up with Blue Cross Blue Shield health insurance of Florida for a very unique partnership according to the article “Dade, Blue Cross offer health plan” by John Dorschner on miamiherald.com.  Currently there are around 600,000 uninsured in Miami-Dade county and leaders felt something needed to be done to fix this. 

Janet Perkins with the Office of Countywide Healthcare Planning believes this is a cutting edge program for Florida health insurance and a national model.  It’s called Miami-Dade Blue and it’s a revolutionary option to offer affordable health insurance to the uninsured.  This special health insurance would cost a healthy 35 year old man around $100 which is extremely low.  This concept was first a vision of Commissioner Joe Martinez from about 5 years ago.  He said it’s been a long, hard road, but he’s truly excited and good things can come from this plan. 

There are some concerns over the benefits of the program.  Some insurance brokers believe the benefits may not be as good as most popular plans which may cause a problem as policyholders file claims.  One of the major challenges was getting providers to take discounted prices.  Approximately 1,500 doctors have agreed to be included in the Miami-Dade Blue network which is a great start in the right direction.

Some California health insurance companies, inlcuding Kaiser Permanente, Health Net, and Blue Shield of California, have warned brokers across the state that if they combine health insurance plans offered by their companies with other forms of insurance or “wraparound” plans to cover the gaps in coverage, they may be refused earned commissions or even lose their appointment with the health insurer.

One example of one of these wraparound plans is Ben-e-lect, a flexible benefits program that sells wraparound plans to businesses and has partnered with more than 30 chambers of commerce.

Health insurers do not like the practice of bundling because they claim it encourages their members to not be judicious about their health care spending and actually overuse their health coverage.

California Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner is investigating the issue to determine whether firing health insurance brokers in this scenario would constitute a brach of legality and contractual obligation.