Georgia health insurance agents may soon be guaranteed commissions by law. Legislation that mandates commissions be paid on all sales health insurance agents make passed the state House Thursday, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Learn how much do health insurance agents make in different states with this article.
Republican state Rep. Shaw Blackmon tried last year to push a similar bill through, but it was torpedoed in the state senate – largely because it set a minimum commission rate for all plans sold, according to the AJC.
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This year’s bill, HB 64, doesn’t set that minimum. The bill is off to a good start, passing the Georgia House by a vote of 172-1. But opponents say that the bill is hypocritical coming from Republicans who’ve long insisted that government had no place interfering in the free market, the AJC reported.
However, Blackmon said that because the Affordable Care Act required all taxpayers to have health coverage, small-town agents were selling more individual plans than ever before. Insurance companies, according to Blackmon, weren’t always paying commissions for those smaller – and less profitable – plans.
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