Are you sewing your parachute?

[Alston]

I firmly believe that eventually the US will have some form of socialized medicine in every state. The other industrialized countries have made this change and sooner or later we'll have it here. Will it happen in 2009? Maybe not. But it will happen.

I'm sure that there were workers in Detroit a couple of decades ago who were shocked when they got their layoff notices. Americans always drove American cars, right? Japanese cars were low quality tin boxes, right?

I'm actively sewing my parachute. I make too great a percentage of my income from health insurance. I'm looking to build a book of business in life and other lines.

I'm also leveraging what I've been able to learn on my own doing SEO for my websites and going for a certification in the field. My thinking is that I can use the knowledge to promote websites that have nothing to do with insurance if health insurance as we know it ceases to exist or promote my insurance based websites better if doomsday never comes.

I'm interested in knowing how many health insurance agents are concerned enough to have a plan that they are actively working and how many believe that nothing will change.

 

[somarco]

Having been in this industry for a long time, and witnessed many changes (as well as political promises that did not pan out) I don't see the landscape changing drastically for a long time, if ever.

If you seriously look at nations where health care is provided via taxes you see the same underlying issues we have here. There are no mechanisms to control health care costs and access to health care is rationed.

Until a way is discovered to control the cost of care any delivery system is destined to spring leaks.

The US system is a mirror image of other countries in the way we address health care. We require patients to pay for basic care but catastrophic care is covered either through private payments or laws such as EMTALA. Other countries cover basic care but ration catastrophic care.

So the question is, which would you rather have?

In Canada, Great Brittain, France, etc. rationing exists but you would never know it from the MSM and left wing blogs. Just as there are stories here about someone left out in the cold the same occurs in countries where taxpayer funded plans are the norm.

The cost of providing "universal care" is astronomical. There simply are not enough dollars in any economy (except perhaps the oil rich nations) to provide unfettered access to unlimited care. Our own economy is a train wreck and looking like it will get worse before it get's better. The banking system is on the verge of collapse thanks in part to congressional meddling in the mortgage market.

In case you missed it, the mortgage meltdown was instigated by congress attempting to force lenders to provide access to "universal mortgages". Lenders who failed to extend credit to those who were not credit worthy were fined for redlining or were simply left out in the cold.

Now politicians want to pass this mess on to the health insurance industry by chastising those who are currently redlining high risk clients.

Same thing.

You don't have to look too far to see how badly legislated "universal coverage" has failed. Just look at the handful of states with guaranteed issue. And how about those risk pools? The FL risk pool has been closed for years, CA has a queue and other states have issues as well.

The new models for health care, such as in Taxachussetts, are already bleeding profusely.

And speaking of bleeding, the federal government is on life support but no one wants to talk about it. For each of the last 5 years the feds have spent $500 BILLION MORE than they took in and the total debt exceeds $9.3 TRILLION. The unfunded liability for the federal deficit exceeds $500k per household.

So there are two questions that hinder universal care. How will you control costs (other than rationing) and how will you pay for it?

Of course this is a logical response to an illogical proposal which results in a conundrum.

 

[Crabcake Johnny]

I do not believe we will ever have universal health care. However, GI coverage is coming. Is it coming next year? No. 5 years? no.

However eventually it's coming and when it comes commissions will likely be around the 5% range with most carriers and around the 0% range with carriers like BX and Aetna.

 

[xrac]

I firmly believe that eventually the US will have some form of socialized medicine in every state. The other industrialized countries have made this change and sooner or later we'll have it here. Will it happen in 2009? Maybe not. But it will happen.

I'm sure that there were workers in Detroit a couple of decades ago who were shocked when they got their layoff notices. Americans always drove American cars, right? Japanese cars were low quality tin boxes, right?

I'm actively sewing my parachute. I make too great a percentage of my income from health insurance. I'm looking to build a book of business in life and other lines.

I'm also leveraging what I've been able to learn on my own doing SEO for my websites and going for a certification in the field. My thinking is that I can use the knowledge to promote websites that have nothing to do with insurance if health insurance as we know it ceases to exist or promote my insurance based websites better if doomsday never comes.

I'm interested in knowing how many health insurance agents are concerned enough to have a plan that they are actively working and how many believe that nothing will change.

Maybe you are right, maybe not but I think you are smart, real smart to do what you are doing.

 

[senior-advisor-indiana]

I agree with Xrac. If you aren't selling kore than just health then you are leaving way too much money on the table.

 

[LGilmore]

I too think some form of GI is coming. That's about all the government can do is require insurers to take everybody who applies. More high risk pools will be created.

Uncle bucks simply does not have the money to provide "free" health care beyond what they do now.

When you review the lowest tax rates in countries where national health care exists you'll see it won't fly. You think people scream right now about the cost of health care, wait till it's free.

 

[somarco]

The problem with GI across the board is it screws up the market for everyone. Rather than making all plans with all carriers guaranteed issue, require each carrier to offer 1 or 2 plans that are GI. The risk can be offset by tax subsidies rather than requiring each carrier to shoulder the full brunt of the losses.

Flood insurance is a taxpayer subsidized risk pool. SR-22 filings for poor auto risks are a separate class who are charged a high rate that is not blended in with the good risks.

The states that have mandated GI have lived to regret it . . . or at least their constituents have . . .

 

[J.R.]

The problem with GI across the board is it screws up the market for everyone. Rather than making all plans with all carriers guaranteed issue, require each carrier to offer 1 or 2 plans that are GI. The risk can be offset by tax subsidies rather than requiring each carrier to shoulder the full brunt of the losses.

Flood insurance is a taxpayer subsidized risk pool. SR-22 filings for poor auto risks are a separate class who are charged a high rate that is not blended in with the good risks.

The states that have mandated GI have lived to regret it . . . or at least their constituents have . . .

Good idea, but how do find a way to reduce health care costs.

If the market supplies the demand, but the insurance carriers is the gate keeper, it makes a bit difficult to get prices reduced unless we're talking about cash or financed based transactions.

 

[somarco]

Good idea, but how do find a way to reduce health care costs

Technology drives a good bit of health care costs. Newer imaging devices, pharamceuticals, even micro-surgery techniques all come with a price.

So does litigation and med mal plus the defense of frivolous suits.

Throw in untempered demand, particularly from those with rich benefit plans and you have a cauldron of witches brew.

Demand can be offset by better living. We are rapidly becoming a nation of not only obese adults but children as well. Physicians are seeing cardiological phenomena in teens that normally do not start until middle age. The increase in type II diabetes in children and teens is something we have never seen before. Our high fat, high calorie diets combined with an almost complete abandonment of regular exercise has led to a nation that is slowly dying of almost completely preventable diseases.

We want the latest and greatest technique, and fast cures that come in a pill. Docs give meds, they don't suggest lifestyle changes. Demand for medical services is out of control.

This is not just a US phenomena but is worldwide.

Taxpayer supported plans such as Medicare artificially control costs by shifting to the participants in the form of higher premiums, copays and deductibles. They also limit, and in some cases reduce reimbursement to providers which has the effect of limiting the number of providers willing to accept Medicare patients.

In other words, rationed health care.

Every dollar lost by treating Medicare patients is shifted to those with the ability to pay which means those with insurance.

Rationing of medical care is the only truly effective method of controlling costs but it comes with serious repurcussions.

 

[Alston]

I thought this would happen.

This thread has become a debate about whether or not national health care is a good idea. Good idea or not, our industry will change and change radically at some point in the not too distant future. Whether it is GI or socialized medicine, commissions will likely be negatively affected. Whether it happens state by state or or in one fell swoop, agents need to be prepared.

Sewing your parachute protects you if your pilot flies into a storm. It offers protection whether or not flying into the storm is a good idea.

Of course I have no ownership or control of this thread just because I started it, but there are plenty of national health care debates on the forum. I was hoping for a discussion of the ways agents are protecting themselves and their families from the impact of the changes to come.