Trump administration cuts to the Affordable Care Act could drive up broker business.
Open enrollment for the ACA started Wednesday. About 10 million people who buy their own insurance are just now getting a look at what’s offered – and the information overload can be confusing. And with the Trump administration slashing funding, there’s less assistance for customers trying to make sense of it all.
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The Department of Health and Human Services is turning to brokers to pick up the slack, according to an NBC News report. Its online marketplace, healthcare.gov, has a new “Help On Demand” feature under its “Find Local Help” tab. Using that feature, consumers can enter their contact information and get a call back from a licensed broker.
“This move of working more with brokers will help make up some of the difference (due to slashed funding), although any time you remove help, that’s not a positive step,” John Dodd, president-elect of the Ohio Association of Health Underwriters, told NBC.
Although that means more business for brokers, it can mean tough sledding, too. Illinois broker John Jaggi told NBC that he and his daughter, broker Anne Petri, often spend the first half-hour of appointments helping their clients figure out if they qualify for a premium subsidy. By the time they’re done, Jaggi said, clients are so fed up they don’t even want to discuss the details of the plan.
Dodd told NBC that he hoped Congress acts soon to stabilize the market. If no action is taken, he said, “2019 could be Armageddon – off-the-charts bad.”
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