Healthygeorgia's Blog

As I write to you today, I am wondering the same thing, but I can offer some insights. Little will change in terms of the tick-tock of recent months with staggering impacts on benefits advisors and rates still on the climb for consumers. One of the most significant moves I have made on behalf of GA-Can members is to pen a fairly scathing letter to support the GA DOI’s MLR waiver request, which I will publish today on the GA-Can blog. Key to that missive is evidence from advisors who write a lot of individual market business that many are shuttering that sector of their businesses, drastically limiting the choices many purchasers have in the marketplace.

I also worked on the recently completed Georgia state exchange feasibility project and I was able to extract as part of my questioning of the process a pretty interesting response from one of the folks chiefly involved in the process of exchange setup in Massachusetts and Utah. I cited the fact that the courts might rule the individual mandate unconstitutional and that the Congress may refuse to fund subsidies in state exchanges. In addition, the political concessions by the insurance carriers were based on both of these items with the mandate stabilizing a guaranteed issue market and subsidies in exchanges going directly to their bottom lines. My question essentially was if the numbers just don’t add up for guaranteed issue coverage and the incentives aren’t there for folks to buy from exchanges, what would happen to them? The answer I received: “Well Michael if that happens there wouldn’t be much reason to have an exchange.” I thought I heard liberal advocates groaning in the back of the room and a faint sound of angels singing.

The mere fact that 26 states are party to the Florida suit that struck down ACA in its entirety is a compelling statement and I have no idea of how population numbers stack up of states that didn’t sue vs. those that have. Not suing isn’t a ringing endorsement of the federal health takeover, but I will liken this to owning 51% of the voting shares of a corporation. In a corporate setting that guy/gal is the boss, but let’s see how things shape up in months ahead of us. What I do see ahead is political levering by the GOP using the fact a majority of states back the most damning of all the suits against O’Care. They are very likely to take the Senate, but not likely to capture a 60 vote bloc. If Harry Reid carries out his statement he will allow a Senate vote on repeal so GOP Senators will “get it out of their systems”, he will have established a precedent that will be hard to roll back in 2012. The main key now for the GOP is to remove the veto.

Speaking of veto, we are seeing a trend across the globe where Chiefs of State who have lost touch with their populations are being expelled from power. Blame radicals if you will, but what most inflames passions against governments is unmet promises, rising or sustained high unemployment, big spikes in commodity prices and economic down turns that leave average citizens enduring pain and deprivation while a connected elite thrives. Will the core base of Mr. Obama’s support; without dramatic relief for the working class; come out in the grass-root waves that thrust him into power in 2008? I doubt it, but how do I know. I believe the excuses, like “Blame Bush” are starting to get a little long in the tooth and the bailer-outers have shot their last round.

I hope I am wrong, but America is not immune from the market chaos of Europe and the tumult in the streets of Cairo. The Dow hits 12,000 but unemployment in Georgia is 10.2%. Grain harvests in the US are vibrant, but 43.6 Million Americans are on food stamps. Our housing market is still lifeless and foreclosures are accelerating at a time when interest rates are at historic lows. Health reform has passed, but the only reason uninsured numbers are relatively stable is the fact states are being crushed by an expansion of Medicaid caused now by the economic crisis and soon – God help us! by a vast expansion of Medicaid under O’Care.

I don’t see that there will be a great deal of action on healthcare issues in the Georgia General Assembly. As far as budget numbers are concerned, revenues had been trending slightly upward for the first time in about 3 years, but I have heard scary preliminary estimates of the impact of the January ice storm. Businesses close, drivers can’t drive – and revenues drop. The key goal of this legislature is to feel its oats and set to the arduous task of producing a balanced budget which is an absolute mandate. There is no “white horse” and the impact of the expired bailouts from the feds has only delayed the worst of the pain.

In the midst of all this, let me make a bold statement. Our best days are ahead of us! Notice I didn’t say “better days”? I think best days maybe in store and I am sincere. If we can just hold body and soul together, weather the economic slowdown, do what we must to take care of our families and do what we MUST to take back our freedoms, we can emerge from this as a better people. I hope you don’t hate me for saying this, because I know many of you are suffering, but in the scale of eternity, what matters most? Kay & I have had to be extremely conservative the last year, and even had some real scary passages, but we have grown together and been blessed in ways we cannot even measure. Though we’ve never been spendthrifts, we’ve learned a lot about enjoying simple pleasures and the love of our children and grand-children. We hurt more for those we cannot help than we do for ourselves and are pledged once our hard work pays off, that our first task is to honor God and reach out to help others.

Let this be our prayer and hope: “Lord, give us courage and give us words to speak your truth to those we encounter in our lives. Give us provision and show us a way where there is no way. Give us hope where there is doubt and give us eyes to see where you would have us step each day.”

I wish you all well. If I can help you in any way, don’t hesitate to ask. Stay strong and persist. Stay determined to fight for what you believe and against those who would take your freedoms away. I look forward to hearing from you.

Please visit my Medical Price Transparency blog for important news on tremendous opportunities for benefits advisors and brokers!

May God bless you and your families.

Michael A. Wardrip LUTCF – AKA HealthyGeorgia

Director of Governmental Affairs, Georgia Agent and Consumer Advocacy Network – Senior Vice President of Sales, Monocle Health Data, LLC – Government Relations Consultant, Family Consulting Group – General Agent, Family Protection Agency – Managing Consultant, Family Solutions Counseling Center

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January 17, 2011

Hopes for the Future in Uncertain Times

Filed under: Uncategorized — healthygeorgia @ 11:00 am

Dearest Friends and Colleagues,

Today, I am not writing you with anything designed to sizzle or jump off the screen at you. I admit, I’ve done that on purpose in the past and who hasn’t, but the important thing for today’s message is that I believe it will be read by those who are meant to read it.

I’ve sat back and watched developments in recent weeks and months and come away with a need to tell my colleagues who are benefits advisors to hold on hold forth and survive until the wheels of government turn a few more times. There are no immediate fixes, although I have earnestly worked on gaining some degree of relief for you via waiver petition and the like. Nothing was slated to stop the onerous provisions of MLR from being implemented, no matter who told you otherwise, but the signs of hope are out there.

Now, let me talk about a new danger that has arisen out of the tragedy of the Tuscon massacre, and then refocus on what has to occur for there to be real results from the civic debate that will unfold beginning this week. Yes, there is a need for more civil dialog, and I’m one who advocates that greatly. I’ve made a career out of building bridges across traditional party lines to find the levers that need to be pulled to make things happen. On the other hand, I’ve never forgotten that the nature of the political game is rough-and-tumble and it always will be.

Please, let’s don’t let the acts of a psychotic cause the rest of us to feel that somehow we have done anything wrong in how we conduct ourselves. Political theater has gotten off-track lately, but it’s not so much in the intensity of division as in the willingness of some messengers to play a little loose with the facts. What passes for public discourse on many issues and what passes for “fact” becomes oft-repeated tag-lines. The health debate is a staggering example. Ardent defenders of the federal health takeover, when pressed with facts about the disruption it is causing out there in the market lapse into repetition of phrases that are hard to refute, but they are being posited just as a foil against debate, rather than as a credible component of debate.

I know there are examples from opponents as well. The whole “Mediscare” theme has been trotted out for decades, first by one constituency and then another. Instead, can we simply say that the numbers just don’t add up across the whole age and business spectrum instead of focusing on how the scheme fails seniors? As to business impacts, one of the most striking surveys I’ve seen adds up the projected market numbers later in this decade revealing that the total number of covered lives in the private market will increase by only about 4 million under O’Care. The greatest bulk of new “insureds” will be on Medicaid! Why didn’t we just call this whole exercise what it will ultimately wind up being. Of course we might have had to use different acronyms like the “GAME-A” (Great American Medicaid Expansion Act).

Anyway, back to my theme, which is to stay in the game and don’t be afraid to fight! Let’s work on better identifying the threats to public servants whether they have political agendas or not. This is not Mexico or some other nation where public service can be a death sentence. We in this nation can never, and I pray to God we will never accept anything like that kind of environment. On the other hand, let’s make sure that taking a stand against violence of all kinds, especially in the realm of public life doesn’t morph into a “carefulness” that obscures real division of opinion on matters of great public importance.

Ultimately, we’re all in this together. Don’t let division stifle communications. I’ve had industry colleagues in the past run up to me breathlessly saying “I can’t belief you just talked to him/her!” My response is usually to laugh and say, “I’ve known them longer than I’ve known you and besides, I know what I’m doing and have been doing it for decades.”

I have a history of forging strong new alliances out of past conflicts with considerable positive results. I always make sure to wipe the slate clean before a year goes by no matter how tense and terse a relationship became. I’ve even had to do it overnight. It’s just part of my job. If there’s a point to all I am saying, perhaps it is this. In the scope and scale of eternity, how much do our current disagreements matter? Yes, we must struggle and defend our beliefs and our causes, but in the end, there is an ultimate authority with a plan far greater than ours. Let’s make sure we see our colleagues and those who disagree with us as His children. In the meantime, never, no never give up on defending that which you believe in, no matter what the odds are!

Please visit my Medical Price Transparency blog for important news on tremendous opportunities for benefits advisors and brokers!

May God bless you and your families.

Michael A. Wardrip LUTCF – AKA HealthyGeorgia

678-697-6213 cell

October 15, 2010

A Bad Day for the “Other Side”

Filed under: Uncategorized — healthygeorgia @ 12:17 pm

Dearest Friends,

I was about to say “ClintonCare” in the title to see how that grabbed you, but let’s just call them the “other side”. How many days have we had when the federal healthcare takeover met with so many setbacks; at least 6 by my count.

#1 The judge in the Florida case against the individual mandate and Medicaid expansion in the states that is joined by 19 other states and notable groups like NFIB was allowed to advance to summary judgement in December. I still remember how many folks told me this would be tossed out as unsustainable and unadvanceable. I wonder what you are saying now? The Michigan case was tossed earlier, but keeping the VA and FL cases in play with the followings they have and the depth is fine with me. I read of the scourging the judge gave the government’s attorneys in trying to have it both ways with the proponents telling Members of Congress fees and fines for not buying government sanctioned coverage were merely “penalties” and now with the constitutional underpinnings no longer certain trying to say they are “taxes”. Remember the President saying not one American would ever pay “one dime more” taxes under his plans?

#2 The NAIC smack-down on MLR was so much fun to read seeing how they clearly stated without a phase-in over 4 years, the individual market would be greatly destabilized. I wonder if HHS will simply try to ignore their advice?

#3 “WaiverGate” is the talk of lots of folks and has my members and me VERY angry. HHS’s decision to grant special waivers on MLR even before absorbing the reprimands from judges, GAO, the Chief Actuary at CMS – and the truth as told by NAIC is prophetic of the wobbly knees that could ultimately lead to a breakdown in will for healthcare takeover advocates while they watch their support plunge among angry Americans. Many of my members have built their professional practices in the individual market. What did they ever do wrong and shouldn’t THEY have a waiver, or are you happy they may lose their careers and maybe even their homes in the teeth of this economy. I have dear friends and family looking for jobs right now. It is brutal! I pray for them every day. Should we add agents to the unemployment lines – or can they have the waivers the big players are getting?

#4 Speaking of polls, 69% of Americans now say they want PPACA repealed in whole or in part and the margin in favor of outright repeal is larger than those who want to parse it. Only 21% (progressives/liberals/single-payer advocates) want to see the bill expanded because they simply don’t like the monstrosity that was created. I wonder how many of them just can’t bring themselves to say, even if they want single-payer that the bill should be repealed so they can go back to the beginning and advocate what they really wanted?

#5 “Catholic-Hospitals-for-Sale-Gate”: If you haven’t heard of this one yet, you will. In short, as soon as local Mercy Hospital administrators in Scranton, PA ran the numbers of financial impacts of PPACA, they decided to sell stating that in large part the health bill was a reason. As the story develops, it sounds like these good servants who shared their concerns about O’Care were threatened with everything just short of excommunication and forced to recant their statements with a little help from a lady now being called “Barack Obama’s Nun”, who is actually a powerful Catholic Foundation lobbyist in Washington, clearly on the Administrations team. This particular story has a familiar ring. From the beginning both during the debate over this stuff and since passage, there have been similar stories like the smack-down Humana got for sending to seniors telling them their out-of-pocket cost for Medicare Advantage would increase under PPACA. Now, we learn from CMS’s Chief Actuary that his accounting for the program says seniors’ OOP WILL increase dramatically over the next 10 years and the GAO has made some very dramatic statements about distortion of facts and intimidation coming from the Administration and its supporters.

#6 The election polls: Let’s just see how this comes out…. Oh Please, Please, Please go and vote!!!

A bad day… A bad Day indeed – and I couldn’t be more pleased.

May God bless you and your families.

Michael A. Wardrip LUTCF – AKA HealthyGeorgia

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October 11, 2010

HIPAA vs. PCIP

Filed under: Uncategorized — healthygeorgia @ 4:21 pm

Dear Friends,

One of our friends was kind enough to post a ruling that HHS says it cannot grant waivers for PCIP in cases in which an uninsurable individual has not gone uninsured for six months. This brings into view a central fact. PCIP is not designed for HIPAA eligibles because by the time one goes 63+ days without creditable coverage in Georgia, all COBRA and HIPAA guarantees expire. It is very important for advisors to be aware of this distinction and act accordingly.

How does the Georgia HIPAA Alternative Mechanism work? There are two parts with one essential element. The individual employee in question must be coming off a group health plan! If they are not eligible for group insurance coverage, or have let their group coverage lapse for more than 63 days, there is really nothing you can do for them until they have “gone bare” and tolled six months without coverage so they can get on PCIP.

Now, back to the two programs. One is designed for eligible individuals coming off self-insured plans or plans issued to groups outside Georgia. In these cases, an eligible individual must exhaust any COBRA or continuation benefits and then apply for assignment through the Georgia Health Insurance Assignment System or Georgia Health Benefits Assignment System. Eligible individuals are assigned to carriers in the individual market by means of a lottery based on market share.

The distinction here is the eligible individual coming from an insurance styled plan such as a PPO goes to the Insurance Assignment System and an eligible individual coming from an HMO plan will go to the Health Benefits Assignment System. What is most surprising for most folks is when they look at the rates in the assignment system compared to conversions or for that matter, the underwritten market! Infrequent updates cause these plans to not track the spiraling increases in the market as a whole, so individual insurers required to take assignments take a real bath.

Eligible individuals coming off insured group plans qualify for what is called an “enhanced conversion option”, which is a barely understood concept and I fear underutilized in lieu of basic conversions that scarcely give any comfort to a person for whom they may be the only course of action. ECO plans are supposed to approximate the coverages of the underlying group plan and rates are pooled in a fashion unlike the assignment system, so an obvious disparity exists that has never been adequately addressed as the failure it is of the “equal treatment” standard of the federal law. The insurer of the group is required by law to offer the conversion policy to all who qualify, once again, when they exhaust COBRA and/or continuation benefits.

For further review, I have posted a link to the application form the GA DOI uses to screen and qualify eligible individuals for the assignment system. Reading the qualifying information can give one a primer-level understanding of how the components of that program work and also how they fit with conversion options. Here is that link: http://home.comcast.net/~ilovekay/documents/HIPAA-APP-ASSIGN.pdf

For the more studious advisor, let me send you to the Portions of the GA Code that govern assignments and conversions (as well as continuation).

TITLE 33.  INSURANCE
CHAPTER 29A.  INDIVIDUAL HEALTH INSURANCE COVERAGE
ARTICLE 1.  AVAILABILITY AND ASSIGNMENT SYSTEM: O.C.G.A. § 33-29A-1, O.C.G.A. § 33-29A-2, O.C.G.A. § 33-29A-3, O.C.G.A. § 33-29A-4, O.C.G.A. § 33-29A-5, O.C.G.A. § 33-29A-6, O.C.G.A. § 33-29A-7, O.C.G.A. § 33-29A-8,

Group accident and sickness contracts; conversion privilege and continuation right provisions: O.C.G.A. § 33-24-21.1, Continuation of coverage under group accident and sickness plans for persons 60 years of age or older O.C.G.A. § 33-24-21.2

Here’s a link to PCIP information where you can select Georgia information and apply if eligible: https://www.pcip.gov/StatePlans.html

I hope this is at least a little helpful.

Michael A. Wardrip LUTCF – AKA HealthyGeorgia

678-697-6213 cell

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An Outrage for Agents! and… WebPortal 2.0

Filed under: Uncategorized — healthygeorgia @ 8:52 am

Dearest Friends and Colleagues,

There is good news in what I’m going to tell you, but there is also extreme outrage in it as well. Many of you have already heard about the back-room deals to exempt some carriers and companies from the MLR requirements of PPACA. The good news is that there IS a chink in the armor and extreme political pressure is breaking away at the defenses of the Administration on the federal healthcare takeover. On the other hand, what happens to agents in all of this, unless there is a blanket exemption for us??? Once the final decisions are made on MLR, if it is swiftly and fully implemented in line with the “Blanks” proposal which was adopted by NAIC and reported to HHS, many of my friends and associates in the ranks of agents will swiftly and suddenly be marginalized practically out of existence in the market! What did they ever do to deserve this type of treatment?

By all reports 114 companies and special interests have asked for exemptions and at least 30 such waivers have been granted. The State Of Georgia should ask for a waiver and so should all agents in this state! What in the world ever happened to “equal treatment under the law”? I guess if there are any attorneys out there among us who have some savvy about this matter or are willing to do the research, deals and exemptions granted to one market player or interest without regard to the punitive impact this brings on the rest of us should be investigated with appropriate actions taken.

Now, to the next outrage of the day. I wrote a little on this late last week, but it was inserted as an update to an earlier post, so I’m copying and pasting a part of it and adding more insights. I’ve had an opportunity to take a look at WebPortal 2.0 and any promise or hope it would somehow transform itself to something more agent-friendly were totally dashed and despite lobbying efforts to the contrary, WebPortal 2.0 looks worse than the version that came out 7-1-10. From my review, it is far worse than it was and it could get much worse before it’s all over. I only spent about 20 minutes on the site and that was actually a good thing. I was as best as I could, trying to approximate a visit by an insurance shopper, with a simple desire to gather some information on insurance choices for my family. One of only a few saving graces of the site is that it is a quoting engine without direct enrollment capabilities and it doesn’t have a huge banner that says “FREE QUOTES”. On the other hand, it is a quoting and direct referral engine to carriers where the front page on the carrier sites prominently feature online application links.

I did some searching of the portal to see what kind of results would pop up most prominently with the search term “agent”. Interestingly, it was quite easy to find a link to a report that talks about “unscrupulous agents” in the Medicare market and one comment on Kathleen Sebelius’s greetings page that says: “I’m an insurance agent and this information seems to be very valuable for my clients. We will send out many e-mails with links for people who have been denied insurance in the past.” Now, if we grant that this is even an agent, the idea that an agent would send bunches of emails to clients referring them to HealthCare.gov based on the fact the info on the site “seems” to be good, is a bit of a stretch.

A good friend who is a broker in Georgia sent me some materials yesterday from Families USA about state-based exchanges and they feature very prominently their desire to have the web portal be a template for exchanges. They lay down a gauntlet to their supporters to do what they can to make that happen. Be well aware that the government says it wants to make WebPortal 2.0 more robust and to eventually add direct enrollment capabilities.

I have listened directly to some top writers of individual coverage using automation. I have one very good friend who is a top writer who says his margins drop from an average of 5% down to 0-1% almost immediately. Add to this effect the fact starting this month the government fully intends to push millions of potential purchasers directly to carriers with WebPortal 2.0. As a defensive measure, you could go to one of the well-known services that could help you match what the government is doing in presenting quotes, but unless you are serving your clients holistically; meeting many of their health and financial planning needs, you may not be adding enough value to keep them loyal to you. A word to the wise should be sufficient.

Diversify in a meaningful way and be totally centered on building relationships with your clients and serving multiple needs. Don’t leave those services and dollars on the table! Don’t sell yourself short. If you can expand and enrich your role with your clients, you can prosper. ”Package plans” and add-ons as alternatives to serious planning capabilities and training are a temporary fix that can give you time to develop new skills in areas you don’t cover as an advisor. Do what you must. My duty is to keep you informed and to the best of my ability fight to keep you in business.

Let’s keep up the fight! It’s not over by a long shot… What do you think???

Michael A. Wardrip LUTCF – AKA HealthyGeorgia

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October 7, 2010

GOP Majority in the House? WebPortal 2.0

Filed under: Uncategorized — healthygeorgia @ 5:04 pm

Greetings Friends and Colleagues,

First some observations of the day on WebPortal 2.0: I did not have a lot of time last night to review the site and that is an important thing to note. My cursory review of the materials there are very much like the kind of visit the average consumer is going to make and despite lobbying efforts to the contrary, WebPortal 2.0 looks far worse than the version that came out 7-1-10. Its only saving grace is that it is a quoting engine without direct enrollment capabilities and it doesn’t have a huge banner that says “FREE QUOTES”. On the other hand, it is a quoting and direct referral engine to carriers where the front page on the carrier site prominently feature online application links.

I did some searching of the portal to see what kind of results would pop up most prominently with the search term “agent”. Interestingly, it was quite easy to find a link to a report that talks about “unscrupulous agents” in the Medicare market and one probable plant of someone making a comment on Kathleen Sebelius’s greetings page that says: “I’m an insurance agent and this information seems to be very valuable for my clients. We will send out many e-mails with links for people who have been denied insurance in the past.” Now, if we grant that this is even an agent, the idea that an agent would send bunches of emails to clients referring them to HealthCare.gov based on the fact the info on the site “seems” to be good, is a bit of a stretch.

A good friend who is a broker in Georgia sent me some materials yesterday from Families USA about state-based exchanges and they feature very prominently their desire to have the web portal be a template for exchanges. They lay down a gauntlet to their supporters to do what they can to make that happen. Later in this same email, I make some observations about real impacts happening to agents I know and these are only going to be exacerbated by WebPortal 2.0. and versions to come that the government says they intend to offer with full enrollment capabilities.

I have listened directly to some top writers of individual coverage using automation and they did not comment at all on what happens to their margins under MLR, if and when it happens. I have one very good friend who is a top writer who says his margins drop from an average of 5% down to 0-1% almost immediately. Add to this effect the fact starting this month the government fully intends to push millions of potential purchasers directly to carriers with WebPortal 2.0. Any agent sending clients to it had better be licensed with all the carriers on the site and have the kind of relationship that allows them to corral the prospect back to them after they have shopped the site. You could go to one of the well-known services that could match what the government is doing in presenting quotes, but unless you are serving your clients holistically; meeting many of their health and financial planning needs, you may not be adding enough value to keep them loyal to you. A word to the wise should be sufficient.

Now to something almost purely political:

The Administration and federal regulators are trying to keep a game-face approaching the November elections, but signs of real fear are creeping out slowly. More and more folks who have the kind of connections I respect are telling me that the real story of the fear and back-pedaling on the part of the feds is not being told. News items like the suggested drop of coverage by McDonald’s and the loss of a marquee name in employee benefits when the Principal Financial group suddenly announced its departure from the market, while hardly unexpected, have many PPACA supporters quite on edge. When respected, iconic names begin to drop from the scene they don’t go away. Their blips on the radar screen and continued exposure are kind of like constant reminders we get of all the big banks and brokerage firms that failed as a result of the easy lending practices that began in the mid-90s under the Clinton Administration. Now McDonald’s and Principal could become icons of the public’s displeasure over the healthcare takeover, just like Lehman Brothers and AIG are targets of taxpayer and voter rage over the failed financial policies rampant in America today.

Striking news today that 20% of American households are headed for foreclosure is a further indication that current budget and financial and banking policy simply isn’t working at all. It is also obvious that the Dems may have to pay dearly not only in November, but also in 2012 when the reality of the second financial collapse they are trying so desperately to hide comes crashing in after this upcoming election. I hope I’m wrong in my predictions if only for the fact I don’t want anyone to suffer. On the other hand, the only way sometimes for folks to wake up to reality that translates into real change, they have to be threatened with loss of things that are dear to them.

By speaking truth about current fiscal policy, don’t get the idea I’m throwing my lot in whole-hog with the GOP, or even the TPs or LIBs. I like to pull back the covers on all bad policy and consider advocacy of things that in my estimation might actually work. I do know something that does work. In recent weeks, I have had the privilege of representing a class of professionals for whom I have the utmost respect and there is likely no other group of folks I know who work harder. Evidence of that often comes from how hard it can be for me to get hold of some professional benefits advisors because they are having to work so dang hard these days, just to keep it together. I also must tell you that I am so heartbroken at a few of the stories I’ve heard of folks who in good faith built practices based on the sale of medical products who now fear that their lifetime investment in their professions will be devalued beyond recognition very soon unless much of the impending federal healthcare takeover is thwarted.

I’ve heard from agency owners who have had to let go of staff who they hired specifically to manage certain markets like individual medical; already seeing their margins squeezed by recession and extra time dealing with federal mandates; and fearing that new minimum loss ratios will leave little margin to justify continued engagement in that market. One even expressed great grief that they might have to let go of folks who are going to have a real hard time finding new work with unemployment at sky high rates. I certainly plan on doing all I can to help these good folks develop new markets, exploit new opportunities or offer all the support I/we can give in this terribly difficult time.

Then again, I have had opportunities to spend some time with what I have dubbed the “Kool-aid Club”. This, because I think they might be drinking something that ain’t tap water. With the best intention in the world their advice is to stop fighting and to keep selling because if you keep your production up by automating, you’ll survive and prosper. Too bad others won’t as long as you stay in the game. I don’t know about you, but that is not my reality and that doesn’t reflect the bulk of sentiment from many professional benefits advisors I know. Those who are still angry and want to fight don’t need to apologize and they don’t need to take a back-seat to anyone who just wants to storm through grinding out business regardless of margin, hoping they don’t collapse from the effort, or from the amount of energy it takes to continually act like you are in a pep rally just to keep your spirits up. I have a dear friend who has been a lobbyist who was wearing a particularly fetching smile at the Capitol one day. Wondering if it was just “her day” I inquired. Her reply; “I was a flight attendant on a major airline and they taught us to smile regardless of what was going on and how we felt.” I took one more look at that “perma-grin” on her face and made my way slowly out of there. Another dear friend with whom I’ve re-established contact recently also had something to say about situations like that. He would relate a saying of his dad who said “When you find yourself in the Lion’s jaws, you better ease out real quiet and slow.”

Anyway, back on MLR and the agents; one friend whose opinion I respect tells me the level of fear among ACA supporters may even creep into the “cone of silence” that surrounds HHS now as it deliberates and will reveal its decision on this issue very soon. Public and business community backlash against MLR is so intense it is said that on the day McDonald’s was said to be considering dropping their plan, HHS made a few public pronouncements not directly “about” McD’s – but proclaiming that they haven’t reached any conclusion yet on MLR and won’t speak publicly about it till the “proper” time – (meaning after the election). They are real torn. If they push back on MLR, they risk enraging their liberal base and if they push ahead, the revolt from the business community and conservative and independent voters as well could build into a leviathan they don’t want to have to manage.

What’s the answer? Regardless of the election results, we have to do something about the cavernous partisan divide. I wonder sometimes if we as a society aren’t beginning to resemble some of those Middle Eastern countries where factions set upon one another with great zeal and regularity. Political warfare in America hasn’t reached the strife we see in some lands where political and religious murder and mayhem are a fact of life, but perhaps the fear that grips folks wondering if they are saying the right things to the right people can be just as terrifying in a country as divided as we are today. Whole sections of our country are becoming known as areas that aren’t very tolerant, not based on the color of one’s skin, but by the political beliefs one espouses. Let me tell you an example of how it applies. I’m considering buying some property in another state and I look at all the typical of demographics. Income, education, home values, crime – and now I wonder if I should start looking at voting history for an area trying to make sure I don’t drop myself in an area where my beliefs and political views might be unwelcome. On the other hand, I’m called as a messenger of my faith and I pray every day to have God give me the chance to speak His truth to those I see and meet. Maybe for now, I’ll keep my eye on the other demographics and let God take care of the rest.

May He truly and greatly enrich your Spirit

Michael A. Wardrip LUTCF – AKA HealthyGeorgia

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October 1, 2010

The Gales of November

Filed under: Uncategorized — healthygeorgia @ 2:24 am

I greet you with greatest wishes for your health, safety and happiness.

A ship is in peril and the gales of November come early. Everyone knows that song from the 70′s by Gordon Lightfoot and I woke up thinking of it. It is one of the more striking songs and lyrics of that time and it may be a good theme for this November. Of course, only time will tell what early November will bring, but I’m sensing a possible revolution that will sweep America at a time our ship of state is in great peril.

Overladen and charting turbulent waters our vessel could fonder and take all hands with her, but a mutiny on board is brewing among the crew. Will we let our Captain take us down or will we wrest the wheel from him. I’m also envisioning another old mainstay from my childhood when I first read Moby Dick and saw that classic movie. Only one hand lived to tell the tale about how one hand Elijah predicted: “A day will come at sea when you’ll smell land and there‘ll be no land, and on that day, Ahab will go to his grave, but he’ll rise again, and beckon, and all save one shall follow”.

Given the previous scenario, I think I want to be on the side of the mutineers. We’re not talking about armed rebellion while there is still a right to protest and vote, but one quote from Thomas Jefferson is chilling: “The strongest reason for people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.” [From: Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334 (C.J. Boyd, Ed., 1950)]

We are privileged to live in a nation where there is a right to redress and perish the thought, actual revolution as contemplated and provided for by the framers of the Constitution. Let’s hope the current struggle doesn’t have to go that far, but the debt, the direction this country is headed and the fear I have the pilot and crew may be drunk with power woke me up from a sound sleep to write this down.

From the time I was a child, I had dreams of these days and in the dreams it does come to just such a struggle. In some recent times I have wondered just how close my dreams are to reality while I’m still alive. I was only a little boy during the Cuban missile crisis and perhaps some of my dreams were formed from the fear that gripped the nation and was portrayed on the few television networks of that day.

I remember waking up and standing in the halls of our home in Decatur with an eerie blueish glow coming from the TV in the living room while civil defense warnings and alerts were broadcast. Things like that leave a distinct impression on a young child, especially one learning to deal with so much loss and chaos as I did growing up. From those days I had dreams of an apocalyptic terror gripping everyone around me from threats of all kinds.

Funny thing is even as a child, that person experiencing my dreams was not a child, but an adult. Will I see those dreams or will I get to plan for and finance the dreams that may materialize for me and my family. I will prepare and plan for the latter, but those other dreams still wake me to remind me they could come true as well. I have faith and trust in God and I ask him for a hedge of protection around our nation, but I also know sometimes we must be aware there are enemies within.

For me a passage in a poem by Robert Frost is appropriate:

“I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.”

May God richly bless you and your families.

Michael A. Wardrip LUTCF – AKA HealthyGeorgia

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September 29, 2010

A loss I have caused – and corrected – Next???

Filed under: Uncategorized — healthygeorgia @ 11:32 pm

LATEST: Got that done and moved on the next level of blessings. Two or three new national accounts under tow possibly & opportunities that open as if by magic. I serve an awesome God and He is the one providing the blessings. I’m just dressing up & showing up for duty! Wow!

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