No on Prop 45 Campaign Update
The CAHU campaign to oppose Proposition 45 is now in high
gear. The new website has rolled out - http://www.agentsofaction.org in order
to provide all of us the tools agents need to get out the vote against
Proposition 45.
I am asking all members to go to the site and pledge to help us
defeat Proposition 45. Proposition 45 is bad for agents and
even worse for our clients. The initiative gives one politician sweeping new
authority over healthcare, including rates, co-pays, deductibles, commissions
and even what health insurance covers. I believe that’s just too much
power for one person. While it is true that rate increases are difficult,
Proposition 45 does zero to control the real cost drivers in health care.
Prop 45 only helps special interests like trial lawyers grow fat by suing
others (“intervening” as they call it), all while increasing the burden on our
industry and clients in so many different ways.
So please make a commitment to help out. By pledging on
the website, you will become part of the team. You can also donate to the
cause, order materials, and utilize the social media links to help spread the
word on the real world problems that Prop 45 poses.
Updated Covered California Agent Agreements
In other news, CAHU has learned that the updated and revised
Agent Agreements for Covered California are about to be delivered to your email
box soon. This agreement will be delivered through an electronic
signature process, so you will not have to sign the documents and send them
back via fax. This should be easier for Covered California to keep track
of who has completed the process, removing some of the issues that have held up
commission payments on SHOP, and also should help with the agency paperwork.
As we noted earlier, some of the changes to the contract are:
1) Specific inclusion of
Medi-Cal reimbursement and process
2) Revises record
maintenance requirements in order to conform with the ACA
3) Eliminates the 4-hour
CE requirement for re-certification
4) Sets a 5 year contract
for this term
5) Expansion to allow
agent to sign for agency.
Most of these are positive to the certified agent and will allow
for easier administration on a going forward basis for Covered California.
2014 Legislative Session
Also, the end of the legislative session has just ended and the
Governor is choosing which bills to sign or to veto. I want to thank
those who have reached out via our Voter Voice campaign to emphasize our
concerns about AB 2088 (R. Hernandez) and AB 1962 (Skinner). If you
have not already done so, please participate in our Voter Voice program to make
your opposition heard.
CAHU has had great legislative success this year, but
these two bill deserve to be stopped. They are poorly designed bills that
basically will eliminate products from the marketplace. One targets
supplemental plans (AB 2088) and the other targets low cost dental plans via a
dental MLR proposal. You send a Voter Voice message by clicking here. It only takes a few moments to send the message to the
Governor asking for his veto of these two bad bills.
Finally, I want to remind everyone that the annual CAHU Health
Care Summit is set for October 7 & 8 in Universal City. While the
hotel is sold out, there are a number of nearby hotels which can accommodate
you. We have some terrific speakers lined up, interesting panel
discussions and networking opportunities for all attendees. We have a
great event planned and I hope everyone can make it
Please contact me via comments@cahu.org
if you have any questions.
Sincerely,
Patrick Burns