I take some cheer from National Underwriter's
report on the worries of insurance producers (agents and brokers):
Congressional affairs experts at some producer groups are wondering whether Republicans hate the Affordable Care Act so much that they will avoid making serious efforts to fix obvious problems.
One problem that's very obvious to producers is that their fees are the first sacrifice to the PPACA's requirement that insurers spend a higher percentage of premium dollars on health care:
The issue getting the most attention from producer groups is PPACA medical loss ratio (MLR) provisions that will require health insurers and health plans to spend 85% of large group premium revenue and 80% of individual and small group premium revenue on health care or quality improvement efforts.
NAHU says the MLR provision, which took effect, Jan. 1, is particularly unworkable.
Health insurance agents and brokers say their commissions have been cut 50% starting this year because the MLR formula classifies commissions as an administrative expense.
Producers argue that the formula should exclude commissions, because customers pay the commissions, and health insurers collect commission payments merely as a convenience to the customers.
I find this heartening not because I want to see agents lose their livings, but because I want to see Republicans start acting like Republicans and get to work bargaining to protect their oldest constituents, various business interests. That's what insurance producers want:
