An article in the Thanksgiving edition of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution shows the myriad inconsistencies and irrationalities of the new health insurance overhaul law — dubbed “health care reform” — and spells out how the federal government is paving the way for the demise of the health insurance broker. Easy To Insure ME has the answers

Some incredible excerpts taken directly from the story, and my extremely insightful comments:

“The process of creating this new way to shop for health insurance will be pricey and enormously complex.” — Duh, they want to reinvent the wheel…of course it’s going to be costly and cumbersome! Imagine, if you will, the federal government requiring the states to come up with a plan to create a new distribution system for customers to purchase food items, even though we already have  a system referred to as “the grocery store.” A daunting task? You bet! And frankly, not needed.

“States that take on the job of running an exchange will have a substantial amount of discretion that will determine the level of competition, the amount of choices for consumers and ultimately whether market forces work to aid control insurance costs, as the law intends.” — So, the Obama Administration and Congress believe that the states need to control competition among privately owned businesses, and also allow them to decide whether or not or not to enable the market to control costs. Yeah, show me any state or federal agency that allows the American public to determine how much taxes are taken and what is spent by the government, and I will show you a pit bull that prefers bon bons over raw meat. The states will determine whether or not the marketplace need to dictate costs? Which way do you think they will go with that…set the costs themselves, or enable the market to do it?

“Anybody who shops on the Web these days for products where they can go up there and put in preferences and pull up a set of options that are relevant to those preferences, for a hotel or an airline or whatever, that is the vision of the exchange for health care,” said Joel Ario, director of the Office of Health Insurance Exchanges at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. — OK, if that isn’t seen as an overt indication that the Obama Administration and its operatives think about the broker to be entirely irrelevant in the health insurance distribution procedure, then I do not know what does. It is reminiscent of earlier this year, when a staff blogger at USA Right now wrote that the health exchange system originally proposed by the House would imitate Travelocity, since the fed would control the whole thing, which the Senate version (closer to what we now have) would permit the states to manage it. It appears, even so, that Mr. Ario, a onetime Pennsylvania insurance commissioner who worked directly with carriers and brokers, has swallowed the Kool-Aid and appears to think that providing health care coverage is as effortless as reserving a room at Motel 6.

“Most employees of significant businesses should expect to continue to get their coverage at work, professionals said. But some little and medium-size employers could end up dropping their coverage and shifting their workers to the exchange. How several companies may well do that is a big unknown.” — speaking as an experienced journalist who seeks to back up blanket statements with facts, I have to say that this is one of the most irresponsible and egregious acts of unprofessional journalism I have seen in recent memory, and also 1 of the greatest misconceptions if not outright lies proffered by those in favor of state-run health insurance. What facts does the writer use to back up her assertion that “most employees of large companies” will continue with employer-sponsored coverage? Did she quote any employers, to at least show anecdotally that employers will maintain employees covered? Or is she relying just on unnamed “professionals,” whose affiliations are conveniently omitted from the story? And “some” little and mid-size organizations could put workers on the exchange? Is this once more from the “professionals?” Or is this complete conjecture? It appears to be. At least the writer is being upfront when she states that it is a “huge unknown,” but making such concrete statements such as “most” and “some” and then admitting that it is truly unknown, is poor form. In reality, we may possibly see a majority of American workers form both significant and small firms pushed onto the exchanges, where they will not only have to come across their own insurance (required by law), but pay for it out of their own pockets, at rates that will likely be higher than what the employer was paying in the 1st location. Nice.

“The way the law is written, some employers will be penalized for failing to offer coverage. But paying the penalty may well be much more cost-efficient than providing the coverage.” — Strike the word “might” and replace it with “will,” and this statement will be accurate. Employers will drop coverage and the employees will be forced to go onto the exchange. And brokers are out of that mix entirely.

Georgia’s governor, governor-elect and attorney general are all against the federal law and trying to thwart it, but are working within the law to make sure that at the state level, at least, it matches to the very best of their ability a totally free market exchange.

Without getting into a big Constitutional question (which, actually, is at the heart of the lawsuits instituted by the states against the law), it is incredible that the top elected officials of our country would enact legislation to force states to do something that they neither want to do nor have the resources to do, and take what some say is a disjointed system of state-based insurance regulation, and turn it into a black hole of regulation and uncertainties that could prove disastrous.

Correct now, the broker community is the navigator holding the compass and telescope on the ship, “USS Purchasing Health Insurance.” The federal government has decided that it can do a better job for the crew and passengers, and is putting the broker on a life raft and pushing it out to sea, although telling the passengers that the ride will now be smoother and easier.

The only thing that is missing is Gilligan and the Skipper.