By October 1 of this year, Minnesota will have a state operated health insurance exchange (HIX) that complies with the Affordable Care Act and will sell subsidized health insurance to individuals and small employers throughout the state. The Minnesota State Legislature, within the next three months, will draft and enact legislation to establish the rules and regulations for the HIX. These will likely include a role for licensed insurance agents and brokers.
It would seem axiomatic that for an HIX to succeed it will need agents to make it work. However, there are a few progressive lobbying groups who advocate no role for agents and point to savings that can be attained without agent compensation. They want the public to buy their insurance exclusively through the Internet with the assistance of publicly employed "navigators". They have some key supporters in the legislature.
The MIIAB will need to be very proactive to this legislative debate in order to maintain a role for agents in the HIX. We need to understand how an exchange might work and what services agents can provide and more importantly we need to educate legislators on what agents do to help individuals and businesses find appropriate and affordable insurance. No one else will do this for us!
We also know that many MIIAB members are not involved in the sale of health insurance and therefore are less interested in this issue. But we know many of our members do sale health insurance and it can make up a considerable part of their agency income. It is these members we are seeking at the following meeting:
MIIAB Health Insurance Summit
MIIAB Conference Center
7500 Flying Cloud Drive, STE 125
Eden Prairie, 55344
January 21, 2013
9:00 to 11:00 AM
Join fellow MIIAB members interested in this issue. We will review the progress towards a state health insurance exchange, hear from state officials putting together the exchange and discuss how agents can influence this process. If you care about the government's involvement in the health insurance market, you need to attend this meeting.
If you write a significant amount of health insurance, please join us. If not, we request that you share this information with the person or persons in your agency most involved in health insurance. Please RSVP to April Goodin at agoodin@miia.org or 952-253-2074
