Broker's Advocate at White House:

[MaryDallas]

This person says he is the Broker's Advocate at The White House:

Rhett A. Buttle (OS/IEA)
Director, Private Sector Engagement
Office of The Secretary
U.S. Department of Health & Human Services
Ofc. #: (202) 690-6060
email: [email protected]

I've been sending emails about various issues with the marketplace,
the carriers not paying commissions, brokers not able to talk about client issues with the marketplace, etc.

I got a call back this morning.

Do you need someone to help you with some issues? If anything is going to change we need to let it be known what problems we're having.

 

[moonlightandmargaritas]

"Director, Private Sector Engagement"?!? Good luck.

 

[AllenChicago]

Rhett's Bio. He's the liaison between HHS and every industry in America, LOL.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rhettbuttle
(Click on his personal website link at this URL for a treat!)

 

[MaryDallas]

I got a call back so he shuffled me off to the right person at least. We can discuss with each other or discuss with someone that might pass on the information to someone that might do something about some of this.

Brokers need representation in every State Board of Insurance in the United States. We have never had recourse and have been prey to every trick known to man, manager, and carrier: 1) vesting; 2) assigning commissions; 3) theft by accounting. We are accountable for every move we make. It is all one sided.

Even to call the District Attorney's Office these practices are acknowledged as white collar crime yet nothing has ever been done about it. Attorneys are very expensive and so few know the insurance industry. And you will spend equal money on the attorney as the money you collect. I have done that personally, and was glad to smoke out yet another crook.

 

[moonlightandmargaritas]

I got a call back so he shuffled me off to the right person at least. We can discuss with each other or discuss with someone that might pass on the information to someone that might do something about some of this.

You're wasting your time. THEY DON'T CARE! Anyone thinking otherwise is either naive, foolish....or both.

 

[MaryDallas]

We shall see what we shall see. I just talked to the person that called me this morning. I have always been able to do something about problems throughout my almost 30 years in the insurance industry. And if nothing comes of it: I will at least give it my best shot .... with or without you.

 

[GreenSky]

There was a time that the government actually cared about small business. That was before we elected a community organizer.

Rick

 

[somarco]

Like his boss, Rhett has never held a real job in the private sector.

Clue.

Less.

 

[moonlightandmargaritas]

We shall see what we shall see. I just talked to the person that called me this morning. I have always been able to do something about problems throughout my almost 30 years in the insurance industry. And if nothing comes of it: I will at least give it my best shot .... with or without you.

Give ol' Rhett my best. After you guys get the ACA overturned, come and get me. I'll be in the pool...

 

[nylife11023]

There was a time that the government actually cared about small business. That was before we elected a community organizer.

Rick

"Decisions are made by those who show up" - Aaron Sorkin

If you want government to care about agent issues you need to get involved... write letters, make calls, work on a campaign, go to meetings, maybe even run for office like Rick did (according to Google)... but do something... instead of beating up on someone like Mary, who IS doing something.

I believe that the C-level execs at Anthem and Aetna and other health carriers who cut comp to almost nothing sit in their boardrooms and brag "We can do what we want because we not only 'own' the legislatures, those agents are so stupid that we could probably make THEM pay US to sell our products!"

From reading posts here for over a year I know health agents are dead-set against unions. But think of the power you'd have if you were as organized as the West coast dockworkers are?

There is (political/economic) strength in organization and in numbers.

But most agents are just too old (and too conservative) to get it.

Agents are a 'herd' of domestic cats but they'd be better served and better off if they were a herd of stampeding buffalo!

Probably will not happen, sadly, because agents (here) look at the Mary's (and the Ricks) of the industry who try to do something positive, and just ridicule them.

"The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves, that we are underlings."

-Shakespeare, Julius Caesar (Act I, Scene 2)