Opinion: Public Plan Is Unfair Competition

(CBS)  Rob Schlossberg is the Executive Sales Director for BenefitMall, a complete Broker services company.

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Government-Run Plan

We strongly oppose a government-run public plan that would unfairly compete with the private health insurance market.

A public plan would compete with the private health insurance market and create an unlevel playing field that would eventually diminish access to efficient and sustainable private insurance products.

A public plan would be a huge cost burden on privately insured individuals. When the public plan sets reduced rates to pay providers, the providers will be forced to shift the cost on private payers.

Additionally, unnecessarily dividing the risk pools that exist in the current private plans could be catastrophic in the end result.

The implementation of a public plan will be extremely costly. The same funds could be directed toward subsidies for low-income individuals and businesses to aid them in purchasing private coverage.

A public plan could mean the loss of millions of insurance related jobs in every state. This loss in state premium tax revenue will only increase the already taxed state budgets, and the many programs that these taxes support that are often non-insurance related.

Exchanges/State Regulatory

Any exchange developed as part of the healthcare reform should be state, regulatory in structure and not administration.

Many online portals and exchanges exist in the private market today. It would reduce cost to implement a new healthcare plan by utilizing our existing infrastructure through regulated guidelines.

The timeline of implementation of a new healthcare system could be drastically reduced by preserving and utilizing the current private exchange functionality.

The one existing government exchange has failed to meet all consumer and coverage needs. Private exchanges meet these needs today.

Utilizing multiple existing, regulated exchanges could ensure people will have the necessary support through Brokers and General Agents that they use today.

Finally, by placing an exchange in regulated existing systems that support private systems, we will ensure the private systems will continue to have adequate support and visibility in the consumer selection process and force fair and competitive offerings in the marketplace.

Role Of Brokers/General Agents

Health insurance agents and agencies will be needed more than ever to serve as advocates in a reformed healthcare system.

Agents and General Agencies freely provide a number of benefit services for small business owners. Excluding Agent and General Agencies from participating in an exchange will increase cost for small businesses.

Agents and General Agencies are subject to strict training and licensing laws that protect consumers and ensure a quality level of assistance is provided. Unlicensed "navigators" should not be allowed to enroll people in coverage with trained professionals already accessible in our system.

Agents and General Agencies provide the post sale services that are unavoidable and necessary actions associated with every policy and coverage. We cannot disregard these activities when implementing a new plan.

[bombadil4]

What these clowns don't seem to get is that our so-called private insurance (or lack of it for fifty million people)and the rest of our health care "system: has been a dismal failure. Twice the money spent as any other country in the world and yet we rank 37th in the world, having recently fallen below Morocco. When you've screwed up to that degree, you are no longer "da man". You have forfeited what you seem to believe is some god-given right to steer the ship no matter how many times you crash into the rocks. Had your chances, mucked up big time--see ya later. That's what happened to the head of GM when Obama bailed out the company and thats what should happen to the clowns who are trying to frighten the public about universal health care to save their own ridiculous profits in the medical/phramaceutical empires. Can't believe we may be falling for the same old garbage yet again.

[mnbrant]

Oh I came up with the term "Death Care" in a blog a couple weeks ago on CBS online. How very small the world is.

Brant

[mnbrant]

I was for universal health care until I heard that it would allow abortions in hospitals and clinics. Now I want it to fail unless the unilaterally ban abortions in hospitals and clinics. As far as euthanasia goes I really am for it. A person doesn't just die, they live on forever in the minds of loved ones. A dead person I cared about feels just as alive to me today as the day they died. A baby who is aborted cannot ever have this connection to others and is not able to make his/her mark in the world. Of course there is heaven but how great is that? I mean the day Hitler died he saw a Catholic priest who most likely performed confession on him and his wife. Since the Catholic Church never excommunicated him both he and his wife are probably pushing a broom in heaven somewhere. The YMCA gym killer, a grace believer, who believed once saved always saved is in heaven too. Myself? I am both a registered Catholic and grace believer. Since I have never and have no intention of ever going to confession I am damned in the Catholic faith. I still attend on occasion. As a grace believer I am saved once I declare allegiance to Jesus. Actually our pastor has mentioned on one occasion that that too is optional so who knows who you are going to see in heaven. As my belief in the whole thing is kinda shaky I fully expect to be pushing a broom somewhere up there too. I do however believe in heaven though its kind of a hard thing for me to grasp. wikipedia helps. I learn a lot from wikipedia.

[jsd330]

This guy is full of B.S. the state regulations are a big part of the health care cost problem. If regulations were uniform accross all 50 states insurance companies would have less administrative costs. Same with hospitals and doctors. If costs for the same procedure were the same in all 50 states,that would bring health care costs down. Universal terms and claim forms would cut admin costs probably by half. I can agree with him again on having only licensed agents and not navigators sign you up for the coverage. Licensed agents are trained and tested. But let the Federal government license agents and they could sign people up in all 50 states, another cost savings

[sjc_1]

I agree, consistent laws in all state would help. There are 2 or 3 people in every doctors office that do nothing but fill out the different forms and code the billing to insurance companies. If people would pay for their doctor visits, price would become an important issue. If the insurance company pays, then it seems like it is free.

[r9119111]

Is the playing field even now? If not, in what direction is it biased? Is that fair?

[johndevinejr]

The Health Care Industry has had decades to become more efficient. I was in business for 20 years. For the first 7 or 8 years I could not afford to provide health care for my employees.
I finally got to the point where I could afford to pay for health care ( I paid 75% and the employee paid 25%). But each year the inurance provider raised the price. The increases were such than I could not increase my prices to my customers to cover the cost.
For a while I absorbed these increases. I had to keep changing plans to be able to afford the insurance. Eventually I had to increase the copay and decrease the coverage. I can remember increases of 20% in successive years.
As a result some employees quit. Not because of their pay, but because they had families and the coverage I provided was insuffient.

The Health Insurance Industry has been allowed to pillage the American people. One reason we are having this discussion is because they are greedy and dishonest.

The other reason is because those that oppose the Democratic health care plan are on the take.

[sjc_1]

Private insurance is fine for some things, but not all things. Private health insurance only selects those that will not file a claim. If they file a claim the companies say that the premium payer hid a preexisting condition. I do not know about level playing fields, but that sort of selective rigging of something so necessary is unjust and immoral.

[jsd330]

Auto and Life insurance do the same things as health. If you have had an accident or to many moving violations, you either get cancelled or your premiums are sky high, and other insurers will turn you down. Life insurance if you have a prexisting condition are overweight, they will deny you to or the rates will be high. If you have a claim on your homeowners insurance, same thing get canncelled or your rates go sky high, and again once you have a large claim try getting homeowners insurance from another company. So it's not just health insurance, it's the whole insurance industry. If your a risk you are going to pay high rates, if you aren't a risk you are still paying higher premiums for someone else that is, or the uninsured. So we might as well let the government take over all insurance.