San Diego - Change is coming.
Now, I don't want to sound like some old folk song here, but it's barreling down on us like a freight train, and we can either ignore it or jump out of the way. In fact, Flannery O'Connor once said that the truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it. And the truth is that the way we do business is about to fundamentally change. The only question is how much (and, of course, whether we can keep it down or not).
Simply put, this isn't 1993. And Barack Obama is no Hillary Clinton. Health care reform is coming. What you have to decide (and sooner, rather than later) is if you're ready.
You could hear about it in nearly every keynote session here at America's Health Insurance Plans Institute 2009 in San Diego. You could practically feel it in the air on the exhibit hall floor as dozens of conversations buzzed around it like so many desperate summertime pests. You could even see it in the faces of police officers and protestors alike as they clashed (briefly) inside and out.
Even the editor of the American Journal of Managed Care (a page-turner, trust me) laid out his plan for health care reform in the May issue. At this point, it's practically a given. All that remains is what shape it will take.
Everyone certainly seems to agree on the two-pronged attack: expanding coverage while cutting costs. (And am I really the only one who sees this for the oxymoron it is? Why is this not being debated?)
But a big point of (sometimes heated) debate here at AHIP circled around the public plan option. Do we need one? What would it include? While many argue the playing field would remain level, I learned long ago that separate but equal ain't necessarily equal.
And, not to be a bother here, but how are we supposed to pay for any of this? Funding remains a thorny issue, with Sen. Max Baucus all but announcing the so-called soda tax dead while trumpeting the viability of actually taxing employer-paid plans. (Never mind that with a public plan option and extra taxes looming, no employer in his right mind would actually offer health insurance anymore).
Brokers, by the way, are worried. Not that I need to tell you that, but maybe it helps to know you're not alone. But maybe everyone just thinks you are since you've been so quiet.
Denis Storey
Editor
dstorey@benefitssellingmag.com
