Overhaul could vex both insurance executives and brokers

Two professions at opposite ends of the insurance business might not be thrilled with the health overhaul: Senior insurance company executives, and agents and brokers.

Crain's Detroit Business: "Federal health care reform legislation could impact compensation for the top earners at nonprofit and for-profit health insurance companies in the coming years. The bills include new caps on the tax deduction that health insurers can take for compensation they pay their top earners. That includes directors, officers, employees or independent contractors earning more than $500,000 annually for tax years beginning in 2013, said Lori Boyce, director of Michigan health care and nonprofit tax services at Deloitte Tax LLP" (Welch, 8/22).

The Hill: "Insurance agents and brokers, afraid of being rendered irrelevant in the post-health reform world of simplified insurance shopping, are fighting for their very survival. The agents want lawmakers' and regulators' support in getting the Obama administration to recognize their role in the federal insurance Web portal, which lets consumers compare coverage options online." Another issue is that agents want regulators to exclude their commissions from new requirements on what percentage of revenues insurers must spend on medical claims (Pecquet, 8/22).

---

This article was reprinted from khn.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.