There are 4 major stakeholders to Healthcare Reform
1. YOU
2. Doctors
3. Insurance companies
4. Insurance agents (primarily independent agents)
YOU - if you currently have health insurance through your employer, you may see reductions in your benefits or the eventual elimination of employer insurance. This will depend on the size and profitability of your company. Smaller companies are already feeling the pinch of health insurance and may elect to eliminate it in order to remain afloat. This will put many Americans in the situation of having to navigate the health insurance puzzle on their own. In a market with a government health plan, those people will have now have a 3rd option to either private insurance or becoming uninsured. If the company you work for is large and profitable, the benefit of health insurance will become a greater recruiting and retention factor than it is now. Companies will enhance their benefits in order to attract the brightest employees (most companies have continuously reduced their benefits over the past decade to keep up with the rising cost of health coverage). If you currently have individual coverage (i.e. you pay the premium) you will now have an additional option.
Doctors (Providers) - the impact on providers is well documented after the President's visit with the AMA. It was noted that providers are more receptive to health care reform today than in the early 1990s but the primary concern is the amount in which they'll get reimbursed for services. Providers are concerned that the reimbursement rate for the government's plan will be on par with the current reimbursement rates for Medicare. These rates are much lower than what Providers receive from private insurance companies. Smaller, rural hospitals and physicians may not survive at the reimbursement rates of Medicare and will likely close their doors.
Insurance Companies (health care payers) - no surprise, every insurance company is actively monitoring the proposals of Health Care Reform which include Community Rating and is Guranteed Issue. Almost every payer in the nation does not guarantee their products nor do they community rate but rather perform medical underwriting to determine the risk on an individual basis and possibly reject the application due to medical conditions. The governments plan will not individually underwrite and will accept everyone that applies. This means that a healthy 40 year old with no known conditions will pay the same monthly premium as another 40 year old with diabetes. Insurance payers generally do not do this. They charge a higher premium on a riskier applicant and deny coverage to high risk applicants with chronic conditions with the exception of a few companies that are already guranteed issue and community rate their individual products (http://www.bcbsm.com & http://www.bcbsvt.com - you must be residents in order to qualify)
Insurance Agents - Independent insurance agents help consumers select the best product/coverage. They assist in medical underwriting and follow up with the insurance company throughout the application process. They also receive a monthly commission based on a percentage of the monthly premium (7%, 15%, 25% etc. depending on the insurance company). With 1/3 of the eligible population possibly moving to the government's plan, the agent community could stand to loose a significant amount of business and fall by the wayside as a large amount of car dealers did with GM and Chrysler's bankruptcy.
