You're the reason so many Americans want single-payer

The title of this article is not click bait. I stand behind that statement and here’s why:  If you know a lot of the employees you provide benefits for are interested in the ongoing Medicare for All conversation, it’s your fault! If their health insurance and health care beliefs are not in line with yours, then it’s time to look in the mirror. I say this because there are plenty of employers out there now who have worked with their benefits advisor and fixed their company’s health insurance programs. They’ve done it so well that the insured employees do not believe that a single-payer system is a place where the grass is greener. Can you say the same for the groups you insure?

The plans you design — and that your clients use — make up 52 percent of a $3.7 trillion health insurance spend in this market.  This means you, the broker/consultant/adviser, whatever you chose to call yourself, have the single greatest influence over how people feel about health insurance in this nation.  The benefits plans you sell affect nearly every part of how the people you insure will use their insurance to access the health care system. When people are unhappy or experience discomfort, they look for change.  The grass will always be greener on the other side to someone who is not happy with something. That is human behavior 101.

Related: Medicare for All and Medicare at 50: What will it all mean

It is natural decision to seek change when experiencing discomfort. You might have already adjusted your sitting position as you are reading this without even thinking about it because you were not comfortable; your body subconsciously knew a different sitting position might solve the issue.  A huge percentage of our behavior is, in fact, subconscious. The subconscious mind can process 20,000,000 bits of info per second, while the conscious mind can only process 40 bits of info per second. Every single time someone touches the health care system with the insurance plan or card you sold them, the most powerful part of their brain is logging the experience as a good or bad one.  Every single human being insured by one of your industry peers is logging a subconscious health insurance/health care experience as well.