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PAHU Op-Ed on Exchanges
In Pennsylvania, extremely conservative lawmakers are resisting the progress of any
exchange-related legislation, but Governor Corbett has released a draft of his proposed
bill to create one anyway. An
op-ed piece by PAHU lobbyist Vince Phillips
and PAHU media
chair Rob Berger supporting the governor's state-based exchange approach appeared in
the Harrisburg Patriot News this past weekend.
The proposed exchange would be contained within the state department of insurance, rather than run by an independent board
like in many states. PAHU would have a designated seat on the department's exchange advisory board, but the association
is concerned about how some of the licensing issues are handled in the draft bill and is meeting with the DOI to try and
resolve these concerns.
E-Mail (Free) Resources
Knowledge is power. To insurance professionals,
that means staying ahead of the learning curve
about product development and trends in the
health insurance and employee benefits
marketplace. A fully-attuned insurance producer
will want to stay up to date on what
policymakers in Washington and Harrisburg are
planning as well.
There are a number of resources for media
articles available at no cost. The actual list
is almost limitless but here are several of
great value.
Kaiser Family Foundation (
www.kff.org )
offers a wealth of health information and a free
daily e-mail listing of the top 10-12 health
insurance articles of the day. Articles range
from congressional and Obama Administration
proposals to market issues to new health
research plus articles on the uninsured,
consumer-directed health care, etc.
Insurance Financial Advisor (
www.ifawebnews.com ) is a regional newspaper
that also has an e-mail advisory that summarizes
news of interest to all lines of insurance. It
particularly tries to keep on top of news coming
from the Insurance Departments in Pennsylvania,
Maryland, and Delaware.
NAHU In the News (
www.nahu.org/media/news.cfm ) is the
National Association of Health Underwriters
media section and lists articles where NAHU has
been covered in the news.
The National Underwriter also has a subscription
available to an e-mail summary of various
stories affecting insurance. refer to
www.nationalunderwriter.com.
Most electronic and print media have e-mail
opportunities. An example is CBS is
www.cbs.com.
Perhaps one of the best electronic resources on
health insurance news is the Wall Street Journal
( www.wsj.com
). Although a free e-mail subscription to
breaking stories does not seem to be available,
a visit to the web site on a regular basis would
be of value.
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