The current political climate is playing a significant role in the performance of today's health insurance market, said Candi Kaplan, CEO of Kaplan Benefits Group. With universal health care being among the most prominent solutions to help insure the millions of Americans who lack coverage, agents and consumers alike seem to be preparing for what appears inevitable: the extinction of the independent distribution channel.
"A lot of this talk about health care has got people spooked, and I frankly don't think we're all going to be selling health insurance forever," Kaplan said. "I think it's a limited window, because I think (the government is) going to have to change some things about how these products are sold and delivered, and I don't think in the long run it's going to survive. It's creating a lot of anxiety, and a lot of (agents) are trying to figure out what's next and trying to survive."
With that in mind, and with health care and insurance reform standing as one of the biggest issues in this year's election, we asked respondents to the 2008 Health Insurance Study about their political leanings as they relate to the candidates' health care reform proposals.
When asked which issue is most important to them when choosing a presidential candidate to support, the majority selected the U.S. economy (53 percent), followed by national security (21 percent) and health insurance (15 percent). (Chart 1)
"As agents, we're all concerned about the current economy, the housing market, and the different impacts of this happening around the country," said Wayne Sakamoto, national media relations chair for NAHU. "The other side of that coin is, how does that impact the availability and marketing of affordable health insurance? It's about finding that balance in a challenging economy, so the question becomes, how are we to market affordable health insurance?"
Agents by and large were "not sure enough to comment" on the topic of which candidate's health care reform proposal they most supported (32 percent), but among those who did select a candidate, 30 percent chose John McCain, with 9 percent each selecting Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. (Chart 2)
According to one agent, "No one has said how they plan to accomplish what they promise. So far, no candidate in office has been able to do a thing." And another producer commented that "the government needs to get out of the business of health insurance -- too many mandates drive the costs up."
This selection of candidates, said Carolyn Goodwin, principal and owner of Goodwin Benefits Group, reflects the insecurity of the agent threatened by the idea of a system that would effectively eliminate their services.
"Independent agents as a whole are not in favor of anything that takes the individual representation of the consumer out of the mix," she said. "So mandatory health insurance coverage is not going to work for us. Universal health care through government-funded and government-managed programs is not going to work for us. In these cases, the consumers would lose us. They would lose their avenues for appeal and their advocacy through an agent with those kinds of programs."
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