Talk about hogging the spotlight!
Washington DC is driving the uproar around the reaction to the recent Supreme Court decision and all we’ve been seeing in the national media is coverage of the political ramifications. What does this mean to the political landscape? What’s Obama saying? Romney?
Sure, the recent decision will define the road to election 2012 in November. It’s a landmark decision. We get it.
But what about everyone else? What about those of us who are “in the business?”
Let’s remember that our clients are “in the business too.” In the trenches looking for answers. Answers beyond just what they’re reading in the papers or seeing on TV. Politics is all very well — but what does this mean to us today. Employee benefits advisers. What do we have to do?
What we all are realizing — but really weren’t expecting — is that we’re back on the path we were on three months ago. Some of us had a plan, then. Some of us were playing the waiting game. The smart money was on having a plan!
Our job is certainly to figure out what this means to us as employee benefits advisers. The medical loss ratio is already being re-addressed by NAHU, CIAB and the Big “I.”
But the real opportunity for brokers and consultants is to rise above the clamor and provide leadership and focus for clients around what we need to be thinking about. Both tactically and strategically.
Yes, we’re back to complex algorithms around modeling health plan design decisions for 2014. We’re back to strategic discussions around “pay or play.” We’re back to watching public health insurance exchanges in the states we work in. And we’re back to keeping an eye on private health insurance exchanges.
We’re back to providing advice and guidance for navigating an obnoxiously bumpy and untenable pathway. While they’re yammering on about the politics of the thing, we’ve got work to do.
Someone’s got to do it. It’s hard to do.
But as Silicon Valley pioneer, Charlie Jackson once said, “See, that's where I sense market opportunity--when I hear other people saying ‘Boy, that's hard to do.’"
Leopold is an independent consultant.
