Times article touts agents’ help in ACA enrollments

Brian Anderson

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Article in Saturday’s NY Times (link below) about how “the Trump Administration is encouraging the use of insurance agents and brokers” to help people sign up for Obamacare after slashing the budget for navigators. A few snippets from the article:


The administration said in a recent bulletin that it was “increasing partnerships” with insurance agents and viewed them as “important stakeholders” in the federal marketplace… In its bulletin, the administration said agents and brokers who are registered with the federal marketplace can “get sales leads” and new clients. And it offered them tips for “making the most of your marketplace participation during this open enrollment period...”


More than 43,000 agents and brokers have received training and been certified to sell health plans through the federal marketplace. Their advocates said they could provide a lifeline for consumers in a confusing and troubled marketplace.


Michael Lujan, a former president of the California Association of Health Underwriters, called agents “the unsung heroes of health care and the marketplace.” “The Trump administration set out to sabotage the Affordable Care Act by defunding many of the nonprofit navigator groups,” Mr. Lujan said. “Agents can help fill the gap.”


The administration has reduced funds for the navigator program by 41 percent, to $36.9 million, from $62.9 million last year. Among the states hit the hardest, according to data provided to Congress by the administration, are Georgia, down 61 percent; Michigan, down 72 percent; New Jersey, down 62 percent; and Ohio, down 71 percent.


• In California: Agents enrolled 47 percent of the people who had coverage this year through the state-run insurance marketplace known as Covered California. By contrast, nonprofit navigator groups generated about 3 percent of enrollment, according to the agency that runs the state marketplace.

Trump Administration Guiding Health Shoppers to Agents Paid by Insurers
 
""• More than 43,000 agents and brokers have received training and been certified to sell health plans through the federal marketplace. Their advocates said they could provide a lifeline for consumers in a confusing and troubled marketplace.""

It was 243,000 agents/brokers in 2014. :rolleyes:
 
""• More than 43,000 agents and brokers have received training and been certified to sell health plans through the federal marketplace. Their advocates said they could provide a lifeline for consumers in a confusing and troubled marketplace.""

It was 243,000 agents/brokers in 2014. :rolleyes:

I thought that seemed ridiculously low! Missed it by thaaaaaaaaaaat much. Shoulda done my own fact-checking - guess the Times doesn't do that anymore. Thanks
 
Allen,
Curious how you are getting that number from the spreadsheet. I filtered by 2018 and it seems like there are a lot left.

There are some strange NPNs listed...1, 10000, 100000, 1000000, etc.
The first insurance agent ever is still ready to write apps on the MP.
 
That list is FUBAR. For fun I entered my NPN in the search box. Imagine my surprise 20 minutes ago when I was not listed as having a current registration. This concerned me obviuosly. I even went so far as to call cms help desk to ask them about it (they told me I was not registered, apparently they use the same list). However, if I filter by plan year 2018 and then manually look up my NPN, I am there showing an expiration of 2018. So, if someone tried to look me up, that list is not accurate if they use the search box as the instructions suggest. If they look in numerical order I am there.
 
Allen,
Curious how you are getting that number from the spreadsheet. I filtered by 2018 and it seems like there are a lot left.

There are some strange NPNs listed...1, 10000, 100000, 1000000, etc.
The first insurance agent ever is still ready to write apps on the MP.

I clicked on the Expiration heading to put all 2018 expirations at the top. Then scrolled down until 2017 FFM expirations started showing up. Entry 6705 was the last 2018 expiration, before the 2017 entries began.

But as TN_agent stated, the list could be totally wonky. It's government.
 
I used to be trained. Now I'm too ignernt. Something about no pay was the reason. Oh well, more time to screw around doing things more fun.
 

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