On June 28 of 2012 President Obama was victorious in his pursuit for implementing the The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act otherwise known as Obamacare. Whether you agree with Obamacare or not, there are a group of individuals who may be particularly interested in the outcome of the recent supreme court ruling, those people being health insurance sales agents. The question is how will the PPACA affect there jobs and pay.
Many are suggesting that over 100,000 health insurance agents will soon be looking for work, that the passing of Obomacare will trigger mass firings by insurance companies. Those who believe this look at the fact that the new laws require that health insurance companies must dedicate $0.80 of every $1.00 in premiums collected on health care in the individual and small groups. This number increases by $0.05 in the large groups. Many speculate that this leaves no room for commissions, and there for no money to be made. A valid point yes, if you want to be a pessimist.
Individuals and groups are still going to need health insurance agents. The new Healthcare act insists that heath care policies be simplified and clarified. This is not going to be an easy task, and it would be fair to assume the transition will not go smoothly, nor will a health insurance policy ever be simple to understand. That being said individuals and groups will still be looking to health insurance agents to help guide them to a policy that is best suited for them. That being said, a heath insurance agents best defense is eduction, getting up to date on all the new policies so that they can be an expert in navigating individuals though the new health insurance waters that is Obamabcare. While it is well know the Affordable Care Act creates some real obstacles for agents and brokers, the bottom line is consumers will always need the advice of trusted advisers when it comes to health insurance.
Now lets take a look at the simple fact that, as of now, 16.3% of Americans do not have health insurance. That is 50.7 million people who will be looking for health insurance. To put that in perspective that is 1.5 times the entire population of Canada! So apparently 100,000 insurance agents are said to soon be out of work? How is that possible when the number of new insurance policies up for grabs is over 500 per insurance agent? This is not to mention that fact that many people will be searching for new policies given different health insurance companies reaction and adjustments to the new regulations.
In conclusion that only real threat Obamacare represents to insurance agents is there individual ability to change with the times. Other than that the best Insurance agents should be grabbing as many new clients as possible, there will be plenty of them out there.
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