FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Lori Alala, President of the Western Piedmont Association of Health Underwriters at 828-324-2000 or lori.alala@cfagroup.com
Local Group Announces Health Insurance Awareness Week- January 27th, 2010
As part of Insurance Awareness week (January 25th through February 3rd)
WPAHU greeted the public at the Catawba Valley Medical Center office located
at the Valley Hills Mall on January 27th. Our membership provided information
to the community on such topics as current health care reform legislation,
wellness initiatives and various health insurance products. On
January 26th, the Catawba County Town Hall meeting was held. Congressman
Patrick McHenry was one of the speakers and gave some comments regarding
the legislation that is being discussed currently (behind closed doors) by
a strictly Democratic conference committee. He specifically stated that from
his “perspective; we have 3 choices – (1) Accept the Senate Bill and make it
into law (2) Do nothing or (3) Start over and bring about some meaningful
bipartisan reform; create legislation that can be supported across party lines
and gain support from both sides of the aisle”. I agree with his comments
and feel like reform is necessary but the current legislation being considered
falls short of helping our clients and the general public. I delivered three renewals
last week; all were in excess of 20%. Trend is higher than it has been
and will continue to increase. The anticipation of impending legislation, in a
lot of ways, is exacerbating the “affordability” issue for our clients. Insurance
companies are reacting to the anticipated 6 billion dollar increase in
taxes that will be charged specifically to them. No other industries in the circle
of reform are facing this kind of increase. This increased expense must be
factored into the cost of doing business. The increase in taxes, along with
cost shifting due to cuts in Medicare, and anticipated adverse selection relative
to a weak individual mandate is causing carriers to be uncertain about
how to adequately price products going into 2010 and 2011. With the gain of
a Republican seat in the senate, maybe the process will be slowed and the
