Healthcare Reform – Accept It, It’s Here to Stay

Healthcare Reform has passed.  Whether you love it, like it, are apathetic or absolutely hate it, it doesn’t matter.  It’s now law and you need to learn how it affects you.   I think that a lot of people from the insurance industry are shocked it passed.    Many people in the insurance industry assumed it simply would not pass because it didn’t address certain key elements needed to reform our healthcare system and lower healthcare costs, such as defensive medicine, medical malpractice, the costs of pharmaceuticals, and it included many things that will drive up health insurance costs such as the waiving of pre-existing conditions, letting people wait until they are sick until the buy insurance and providing very small penalties for people who don’t purchase health insurance.

The reality is if you don’t like it, you need to DEAL WITH IT!

No one is talking about it, but employers are scared to.  They don’t know under healthcare reform how long they can hold out offering health insurance benefits.    One benefits manager last week at lunch made the comment, “I still have job security at least for a few years.”   He was alluding to the fact that in a few years employers may start dropping their health insurance plans because of the high costs and he would need to find a new job.  It’s a scary new world out there.

If you aren’t happy with healthcare reform don’t waste time thinking about all the negative effects from increased health insurance premiums, to reduced commissions, to other possible side effects you may not be like.   Start thinking about how to take advantage of it, and what new opportunities healthcare reform will lead to.  Also, figure out how it negatively affects you and think about a strategy to combat against it.  I have had two types of phone calls from those affected by healthcare reform.  One is fear and concern about their world falling apart and their career coming to an end around 2014.  The others are the creative ones who look for the positive and  realize the huge opportunity that’s out there.

No one can argue that our healthcare system in the US is broken.   It needed reform.  We are just torn as a nation as to what reform should be.   I think most people are happy that pre-existing conditions have been waived and acknowledge the many people with serious health conditions who were disenfranchised and left out in the cold because of “pre-ex.”   Of course I am not referring to the part of “pre-ex” where people can hold off until they are sick and then buy health insurance.  This part I feel makes it unfair to those who have planned and paid the whole time for health insurance, whose costs in 2014 will go up to hedge the bet against those who wait until the last minute.

Everyone is waiting on the edge of their seats to see what the definitions of essential benefits and annual limits will be.    Most people don’t realize that Phyllis Borzi, Assistant Secretary at the Department of Labor, is conducting the research on the annual limits and providing the recommendations to HHS.
Corporate wellness will grow very fast under healthcare reform, not just because of government subsidies but also because corporate wellness programs count towards minimum loss ratios.  In the future we will see almost every health insurance plan include corporate wellness programs , whether to keep plan members happy or to provide a cushion against minimum loss ratios.

Unfortunately for insurance agents, the outlook is not as good.  Individual health  insurance agents may find themselves out of a job as people head to online exchanges to purchase their health insurance.  At a minimum individual health insurance agents will need to turn to voluntary benefits to supplement their income.  For Group Health insurance agents, they will also need to get creative and either charge employers directly a fee for their consulting work or also sell voluntary benefits as they see their commission erode as insurers shrink the pie as they accommodate the new  minimum loss ratio rules.

The real problem everyone in the industry faces currently is healthcare reform is a moving target and it’s fluid.  Very few people have read it and understand what it means.  Even if you have read it, the government still has not defined what most of it means, and new organizations need to be created who will create new rules and regulations.  The next four years are going to be extremely critical for health insurance companies, employers, agents, and healthcare providers to be focused and on top of any updates and changes.  Now is not the time to put your head in the sand or wait for the answers from other people.  The answers won’t come.  I have been shocked that no major news channel or media outlet at all has covered the story of how millions of Americans will become uninsured at the end of September 2010 and will most likely never be able to afford to buy back into health insurance even when the major changes come into place in 2014.

Some limited medical plans, short term medical plans and other individual health insurance plans seem to be prohibited starting in September.   Most of the millions of Americans who have purchased these affordable health insurance plans have been able to because of “caps” and “limits” on benefits.  Once the annual and lifetime maximums are removed, these plans no longer remain affordable and some insurers are discontinuing these plans.  As an industry participant, you need to be updated as things change under healthcare reform.  You don’t want to find out the day before, that you didn’t pay attention to a provision of healthcare reform, or these (there) was a new regulation or rule enacted and now you have to change the way you do everything.  Education and staying on top of it is this best approach.

This is the main reason some of the leaders in health insurance and healthcare in the US have come together to organize the first National Healthcare Reform Conference, which takes place September 20-22nd, 2010 in Los Angeles.  The National Healthcare Reform  Conference™ will be a fast paced advanced educational and networking event focused on providing you with the answers and solutions.

Accomplish in three intense days of learning, networking and collaborating what could take years to figure out and learn about the over thousands of pages complex healthcare reform bill, rules, regulations and updates.

The 1st National Healthcare Reform  Conference™, will be the first and only dedicated conference specifically on how healthcare reform affects the health insurance and healthcare industries.  With up to 500 senior healthcare leaders this will be an amazing conference

The National Healthcare Reform  Conference™ is the 1st National Conference in the US to address in detail the recently passed healthcare reform bill, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.    The National Healthcare Reform  Conference™ will focus on providing detailed analysis of how healthcare reform really affects the US and all the major players, such as insurance companies, employers, health insurance agents and healthcare providers.  The healthcare reform's main focus will be to provide the detailed answers and solutions you are looking for.

The National Healthcare Reform  Conference™ is committed to bringing in the leading expert speakers from the US Government, Insurance Companies, Employers, and Leading Legal Experts to explain what healthcare reform really means. The National Healthcare Reform  Conference™ is part of the Employer Healthcare Congress, www.employerhealthcarecongress.com , which is one of the leading healthcare conferences in the country with a focus on employers.

Those involved in healthcare and health insurance need to come to the National Healthcare Reform  Conference™ to learn the details behind healthcare reform and to learn from their colleagues in the industry how they plan to address the sweeping change of healthcare reform.  Also, it’s purpose is to provide agents, employers and insurers the solutions to create their strategy going forward.  Until next time…

About the Author

Jonathan Edelheit is editor-in-chief of the Healthcare Reform Magazine and has been involved in Health Insurance industry for over ten  years.  His background includes running a national healthcare administrator, designing insurance products for employers and insurance companies and working with thousands of health insurance agents and consultants around the country.  Mr. Edelheit has been mentioned or featured in hundreds of magazines and media over the past few years and is  considered an expert in health insurance and healthcare.  Mr. Edelheit is also the editor of the Self Funding Magazine, the Corporate Wellness Magazine, the Voluntary Benefits Magazine and the Expatriate Healthcare and Travel Insurance Magazine.  Mr. Edelheit also runs one of the largest healthcare conferences in the country, the Employer Healthcare Congress, www.employerhealthcarecongress.com which takes place September 20-22nd, 2010 in Los Angeles, which also includes the National Healthcare Reform Conference, www.healthcarereformconference.com , the Corporate Wellness Conference, www.corporatewellnessconference.com, the Self Funding Employer Healthcare and Workers Compensation Conference, www.selffundingconference.com, and the Voluntary Benefits and Limited Medical Conference, www.voluntarybenefitsconference.com