Bernard DiFiore's blog

One of the promises President Obama made when pushing through health care legislation was that anyone happy with their plan would get to keep the plan they are on. This includes everyone from those on individual plans to those on group plans.

In other words, everyone would be grandfathered into their current plans if they so choose. In this case, a grandfathered plan refers to group coverage or a health insurance issuer in which an individual was enrolled on March 23, 2010.

Once again, President Obama hosted a town hall meeting to discuss health care reform. This time it was held at a Senior Center in Maryland, with most of the focus being placed on the changes in Medicare.

As mid-term elections approach, President Obama was looking to shift focus away from the oil spill and place it on health reform and its positive aspects.

As some of may you know, I have been actively engaged over the past year in a lobby effort in Washington to protect brokers and general agencies ability to do business in a “reformed” health insurance market. We won some points and lost a few, but overall brokers and general agents will play a significant role in the sales and service of health insurance. The first step in that role is to understand the reforms happening. In that effort, I have compiled some of the key points that we know today.

It is commonly known that last July, Health Care Reform became Health Insurance Reform.  This put insurance carriers directly in the crosshairs of the Obama administration.  So why would Blue Cross of California and other carriers around the country risk the criticism of the public and the administration by seeking double digit rate increases.  Simply – it’s because they have to.

The latest polls show that Americans are less and less satisfied with the health care reform bill. The fact is President Obama promised transparency when it comes to health care reform. What happened instead are meetings behind closed doors, along with wrangling and back door deals that would get the 60 votes from the Senate. Republicans weren’t included and reacted by filibustering the bill.