Health Care Reform Signals Uncertainty For Insurance Agents

Feb. 25--Rising insurance costs push would-be buyers out of the market. Health care reform is being unveiled, and more is coming. State insurance marketplaces loom in the near future.

The lives of insurance agents are in flux.

"So much is changing. So much is at stake," said lobbyist Julianne Broyles, who spoke Friday to agents and brokers at an annual gathering of the Ventura County Association of Health Underwriters.

"In the next 24 months, your lives will be changing," Broyles said.

Federal health care reform brings a mandate that nearly all people buy insurance, starting Jan. 1, 2014. Insurers no longer will be able to refuse coverage to people with cancer or other pre-existing conditions. A statewide insurance exchange will sell policies to individuals and small companies, among others.

The changes trigger concerns about whether insurance agents will have a role in the statewide exchange and how consumers will figure out which policy is best for them. Agents wonder whether the individual mandate will be overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court and whether a proposed California ballot initiative, to further regulate rate increases, will cut revenues enough to squeeze some of them out of business.

"Most people have no idea what's going to happen," said Jim Friedman, former Ventura</location> mayor and longtime insurance broker. "Whether the role (of agents) is eliminated, whether there will be a partial role or whether the role will be unchanged remains to be seen. We just don't know."

Some agents said the changes carry angst. Others said the new statewide exchange will bring opportunity to help more consumers and expand their businesses.

And while many people emphasized the magnitude of change, Thousand Oaks agent Don Jones downplayed it.

The former president of the California Association of Health Underwriters suggested some aspects of health care reform won't have that much effect. He said it's unclear how many people will follow the individual mandate and buy insurance.

"That's going to be the big elephant," he said. "How's that going to play out?"

News reports Thursday that some California insurers are increasing premiums for individual policies as much as 14 percent also triggered discussion. Employer rates are rising faster, Jones said.

"Some employers would love to see an 8 to 14 percent increase," he said.

Some agents said the increases are causing people to go without.

"Nobody's buying," said Henry Salas, of Oxnard, who sells mostly to small companies.

As they talked about the uncertainty, the agents also emphasized their niche as consumer advocates who guide people through a maze of options. Catherine Scrivner, an agent with Warner Pacific in Westlake Village, focused on the importance of making sure lawmakers understand what they do.

"It seems like not everyone sees the role of the agent," she said.

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