Health insurance brokers part of solution

To the editor,
In response to Ted Almon’s recent comments (“Health reform should examine brokers’ fees, too,” Feb. 8, 2010), I find that some of the basic premises of his argument are flawed. There is a reason that the insurance industry has chosen to use the brokerage community as the most efficient delivery system for its products. The alternative would be to increase their in-house sales staff, with the associated costs ultimately finding their way into the rates.
And while Mr. Almon would gladly pay for expert consultation on a fee basis, many other small employers simply do not have the means to do so. Therefore, by having the commissions built into general operating expenses as a relatively small percentage of that overall cost, the playing field is leveled and small employers have the same access to valuable, cost-saving broker services as larger companies.
Valued benefit consultants have only the best interests of their clients in mind. They know that if they don’t provide results, somebody else will.
Finally, brokers are not part of the problem with respect to rising health care costs in this country but rather are part of the solution. A recent Reuters study cites $700 billion to $800 billion in waste in the U.S. health care system. This is why Americans spend more per capita and the highest percentage of GDP on health care than any other Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development country and yet have an unhealthier population than most developed nations.
Kevin Lovett
assistant vice president of
Gencorp Insurance Group.