The National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors (NAIFA) has helped agents stay in the health coverage ballgame, Thomas Currey said earlier this month at the group's annual meeting in Seattle, which was attended by some 2,000 life insurance and financial services professionals.
Currey, the group's outgoing president, talked about the health legislation battle during the conference's opening session of the four-day meeting, which has attracted about 2,000 life insurance and financial services professionals.
Currey says NAIFA helped improve the Affordable Care Act, the legislative package that includes the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), by contributing to the battle to block the creation of a government-run "public option" plan.
NAIFA also played an important role in the fight to ensure that consumers will continue to have access to licensed insurance agents, and to cut out a provision that would have let the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services set agent commissions, Currey says.
"Agents are still an integral part of the delivery of healthcare products to their customers," Currey said. "[They] bring their expertise, skill and exemplary service to help consumers make the right healthcare choices."
Currey cited legislative victories in the battle over the new Wall Street Reform and Consumer Financial Protection Act:
- Blocking proposals to tax life products.
- Persuading Congress to include a provision indexing the new Affordable Care Act flexible spending arrangement contribution cap for inflation.
- Thwarting efforts to appeal the limited antitrust exemption afforded to insurers by the McCarran-Ferguson Act.
