CapCon 2011

What a busy day. Today began promptly at 8 AM with a general session that lasted three and half hours. Today's general session was like the Cap Con’s of old, where representatives and industry experts had a chance to communicate their positions and support of our industry.
The first up was Mike Rogers, a congressman from Michigan. Congressman Rogers serves on the health subcommittee of the energy and commerce committee of the House of Representatives. His first point was to applaud us, stating that the First Amendment of the Constitution gives the people the right to petition the government, and he says, we should be here to exercise that very right. I found that interesting. He then lightened the mood with a couple of jokes; one by noting that health care reform (as promised by the president) said we could keep our own health plan if we liked it. He also noted that health care reform was going to lower premiums. He jokingly asked, “How's that working out for you”. Rep. Rogers, who owns a small business in Michigan, made a great point that emphasized the point I made in yesterday's blog. He noted that most small business owners are working six days a week and to eliminate agents and brokers as a part of the healthcare guidance process shifts the burden to those small business owners who are already devoting their time to their business and that is not good. I think his statement supports that we are a part of healthcare and a very important resource to small business. He also answered the question that I've been asking many throughout this conference; what's in the healthcare reform bill that deals with cost-containment? His response was-he has not seen anything. Rep. Rogers clearly is in support of agents and brokers.
Next up was Joel Aria (sp? My apologies if I have misspelled his last name). Joel is the Director of Exchanges for the Department of Health and Human Services and also was a previous insurance Commissioner for the state of Pennsylvania. He, to, suggested that agents seem to know the business of health insurance. Joel was an interesting speaker in that he made some statements that drew some applause, but also some boos from the audience. In particular, with reference to exchanges, Joel said he compared the role of the navigator in insurance exchanges to insurance agents and explained that the term navigator was created because it seemed that there were some “harder populations” that needed to be insured that agents and brokers typically did not serve. I actually agree with Joel on this point as I do not see many agents and brokers dealing with the individual market, sub standard market or state subsidized market, and there may be a need to have folks to deal with these individuals and groups. I think as an association we may want to expand our roles and work at providing commissions on products to these populations in order to ensure our role in the exchanges.
Next up was Susan Voss. Susan is the current insurance Commissioner for the state of Iowa and Chair of the National Alliance of Insurance Commissioners. When Susan was introduced only two people in the entire audience (about 700) stood up and applauded. She made a short joke of it, but I'll tell you, when she left, everyone stood and applauded. Susan's presentation was probably the most inspirational and the most supportive of our position as agents and brokers. She talked about how PPACA is not addressing cost, we all agree with that. She also mentioned that the NAIC is mentioned 21 times in PPACA. She assured us that the NAIC is not only important to this legislation but that they are dedicated to keeping agents and brokers involved. She was also very honest with us in answering the questions about MLR. She informed us that the NAIC supported agents but, as an association, was split 30/30/30 on MLR. She felt that in order to further discussions with HHS the NAIC needed to present a more united position. She was honest enough to share with us that the decision was to support MLR in order to have positive discussions with HHS. She did mention that the HHS is moving in a direction that is recognizing the role of the agent in the sales and explanation and service process of healthcare. I think the most resounding comment she made was when she stated that in her role as an Insurance Commissioner, consumers call her to complain, but it is the agents that educate her. She reiterated her support of what we do and what role we play in the process.
The next presenter was Dr. Andy Harris, a freshman congressman from Maryland. He did mention that he felt these times were interesting, exciting and frightening. I thought those were good descriptions. I've been attending Cap Con for some time and I've seen many representatives present in front of us. There is much talk of the “freshman class” in the house this year. I here there's more of them than ever before. I'd never really experienced a freshman presentation per se, but could tell the difference between experience representatives, who seem to engage us more, and freshman representatives, who read more from a script and quote more “campaign like” speech such as referring to America as a beacon of freedom or conversations about overcoming personal adversity to reach the house. Dr. Harris was informative but you could tell he was somewhat scripted.
The last presenter was Representative Kevin McCarthy from California who is majority whip in the House. You could tell Rep. McCarthy had some experience. He was not scripted, told more jokes, and never looked down to referred was notes. Again, he was supportive of our position and gave me the belief that the role of the agent and broker is being represented, communicated and supported on Capitol Hill.
From the end of the general session it was off to a quick lunch and then up to the Hill for my lobbying appointments. My first appointment was with Becky Cornell, Legislative Assistant for my representative, Paul Tonko. I've met Becky before and, while I know representative Tonko supports single-payer, the purpose of my meeting was to asked the question about cost and explain the value and role that I, as an agent and broker, bringing to my clients with respect to health care. Becky responded positively and told me that she has never heard representative Tonko not support the agent broker community. He also told me she would mention to him the stories that I shared with her and felt that representative Tonko would be supportive of agents and brokers moving forward. From there I went to my next congressional meeting with freshman representative Chris Gibson. I was joined by fellow NAHU members Mickey Lyons, Brian Bodner and Sher Sparano. The four of us met with Nick Czajka, a legislative staffer for Representative Gibson. The office was busy and Nick was very attentive, but was not up to speed on many aspects of PPACA. We shared with him our stories, our support of agents and brokers and the role of NAHU in healthcare reform. At the end of our meeting Nick thanked us and did tell us that he had learned a lot and was grateful for our meeting. I got the feeling was truthful. Representative Gibson will be speaking to our local Northeastern New York chapter in March.
Next, I joined Mickey Lyons in his meeting with another freshman representative, Tom Reed. Our contact for our meeting was out for the day, however, his office was accommodating and we met with Carlton Jackson, Operations Manager for Representative Reed. We were fortunate enough to briefly meet Rep. Reed as he passed through the office and took a moment to come over and introduced himself to us and shake our hands. I've been up here a lot, and have a representative take a moment to introduce themselves to us, that meant something. Carlton, like Nick at Representative Gibson's office, was very welcoming and seemed interested in hearing our position and our stories. He too noted that Representative Reed supports agents and brokers, but was not able to commit to a whole lot. I can understand that.
I had dinner with Todd Bellistri, a Metro New York NAHU member and fellow small agency principal. We talked about best practices, our struggles with dealing with carriers, competition and clients.
All in all, I have to say that today gave me greater belief that we, as agents and brokers, are winning the fight for our right to survive. We’ve got a lot of support up here on the Hill, but we need to continue to deliver the message of our value to those who either do not understand this or feel we add to the cost (unnecessarily) to the system.
That's all for now, I've got a get some sleep.
Until tomorrow…