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NAHU was featured in more than 200 news stories in the past month, reaching an audience of 30.3 million people. You can access the major stories, including articles from Insurance & Financial Advisor, National Underwriter, The Wall Street Journal, Politico, Scottrade, Washington Times, AllBusiness, The Boston Herald and The Boston Globe, on the NAHU in the News webpage.
Without a fully unified private health / disability insurance industry, the chance of maintaining private sector insurance delivery is greatly diminished! We have all seen government attempts to take over health care delivery as we know it. There is little doubt that such proposals will continue to surface in the future. The survival of competitive individual sales of private health / disability depends on each member's strong affiliation, strong positive image, and representation before the public and public officials. Providing a unified message to all these opinion leaders is essential and best done by your association. IAHU is dedicated to helping each member control their destiny and that of their profession.
Wellmark Rate Increases Reduced by State
January 28, 2011 – Iowa Insurance Commissioner Susan E. Voss has completed her review of the Wellmark rate increase request filed with her office in November. The company will not be permitted to raise individual health insurance policy base rates by 10.8% as they requested…..read more
http://www.iid.state.ia.us/docs/press012811.pdf
Message from the IAHU President
February 5, 2010
Insurance Day on the Hill this past Tuesday was a great success! There were over 300 people attend on behalf of the insurance industry. IAHU members were able to meet with House Minority Leader, Kraig Paulsen; Minority Whip, Linda Upmeyer; Senate Minority Leader, Paul McKinley; Senate Majority Leader, Mike Gronstal; and Governor Culver.
In these meetings our main agenda was to make it clear that we do not support Senate File 2092. Senator Hatch filed this bill, and it did not follow the recommendation of the Healthcare Commission that IAHU’s Joe Teeling sits on. Our main points of opposition were the eligibility for the Iowa Cares Program moving from 200% to 400% of poverty which make this plan a public option and the “exchange” language that creates a government bureaucracy that is duplicative of our current system. IAHU obviously opposes these issues. IAHU does agree with the Commission regarding expanding the providers that are contracted for the Iowa Care Program.
We want our Legislative Leaders to know they can come to us for questions regarding health insurance. We are the experts they should be turning to for the facts.
Although, we had a great meeting it is still critical that you contact your legislators immediately to let them know that you oppose Senate File 2092 in its current form. IAHU has already “marked-up” the bill, so it’s important that they know it’s the original bill that you oppose. You don’t have to give a lot of details when speaking with your elected officials, but make sure they understand the exchange language doesn’t reflect the Healthcare Commission’s report and that increasing eligibility for the Iowa Cares Program from 200% to 400% of poverty will cause an increase in health insurance rates and the State’s budget.
You can follow this link to find your legislator & look up SF2092: http://www.legis.state.ia.us
If you have any questions, you can contact:
Eric Kohlsdorf eric@prismastrategies.com or 515-244-3691
Joe Teeling jteeling@bearence.com or 515-327-8454
January 25, 2010
Hello Fellow IAHU Members,
A week from tomorrow (February 2nd) is the Insurance “Day on the Hill” which is a day reserved for insurance companies, agents, and brokers to come to the State Capitol and talk with legislators. Over the years, this event has grown to include almost every major insurance company in both the health and property casualty arenas.
With last week’s historic Massachusetts’ Senate election, Federal legislation may begin over and surely will change from its current mark-up. Now more than ever we must be diligent and make our voices heard here in Iowa with our own State Legislature. Senator Jack Hatch has already prepared a bill to introduce an “Exchange” to ‘compete’ with private insurers. He’s also already trying to ‘lobby’ other legislators. As you know, there is no such thing as competition when your opponent is the referee and scorekeeper. We must be involved in this outcome!
Day on the Hill is an open forum to meet and greet your legislators. You can stay for as long as you want during the day as there will be booths, food and discussion. For those in Central Iowa, please consider stopping by the Capitol if your schedule allows and for those in the Western and Eastern sides of the state, try and make the trip so your voice is heard regarding State Healthcare Reform.
Our battle may have turned last week, but it is far from over. We still need your help! If you plan to attend at any point in the day, please send an email to ExecDir@eiahu.org so we can look for you and stop by the IAHU booth on the Rotunda! Thanks for considering this opportunity and we’ll see you at the Capitol.
Best regards,
Eric Kohlsdorf
President – IAHU
www.eiahu.org
Message from the IAHU President
October 26, 2009 Email
Hello Fellow IAHU Members,
As we head full steam into the ‘busy’ season for employee benefits and Medicare re-enrollment, your IAHU Board would like to give you an update on what has been happening within your Association.
As you know, a few short months ago our local members in both the Des Moines Area and Cedar Valley voted to consolidate into one state chapter for many positive reasons. As simple as this sounds to accomplish, there were many hurdles to jump and we are still jumping as I write this email. First of all, we have combined the budgets and consolidated the banking arrangements so we can move forward on the legislative front. As well, we have hired an Executive Director who will help out with communication on programs, happenings within government, and much more. This was one of the major objectives in the consolidation process.
Possibly one of the most important aspects of reorganizing is to better communciate with you. It has been a struggle for our Association in the past as well as currently to find an effective method to send our message. Over the past number of years, it has been very difficult mainly because there is a lot of work that goes into this endeavor (not to mention the cost). With a completely voluntary Board, finding enough time to devote to these endeavors is tough. Now through the consolidation, we are able to enlist more volunteers to help (while easing the workload) and therefore have made significant strides. These monumental tasks have been headed by Dawn Ring and she should be commended for taking on this project.
We are about to launch our ‘new and improved’ website that will be much more user friendly with links to our Corporate Partner websites as well as our National website. Through this protal, you will have access to more information than ever before! In addition, we have also moved forward with beginning a newsletter that will be available online through our website as well as mailed directly to you. The newsletter will begin sometime after the first of the year and will include political updates from the 2010 Iowa Legislature as well as industry news.
Along side communcation, our programs provide a valuable membership benefit. This has proven to be a bit more difficult to consolidate than expected. We apologize for the somewhat sporatic communication. Cedar Valley has gone forward and had their standard breakfasts or luncheons of one hour. In the Des Moines Area, we have partnered with Drake University and piggybacked on a number of CE events that have been very beneficial. At this point, our Programs Committee is fully ‘staffed’ by volunteers and we expect to hold some very educational meetings. Renae Johanningmeier is heading the Programs Committee and they are working on having meetings not only in Des Moines and Cedar Rapids but also in varying locations throughout the state. One idea this committee is reviewing is fewer ‘One Hour’ meetings and more ‘Multi Hour’ CE events.
In conjunction with the Programs, the IAHU Board is very excited this year as we are teaming up with NAIFA to have a joint Annual Symposium. This year’s symposium will be during the first week in May and will be located in Cedar Falls/Waterloo. You will notice that the symposium has been moved to May from February. We will continue to have the “Day on the Hill” during the legislative session. More details will be announced later on this important visit to the Iowa Capitol.
As far as Governement Relations, we have once again retained Larry Blixt as our lobbyist. Larry was instrumental in getting an IAHU representative on the Healthcare Commission three years ago. Today, IAHU is the only group that has had the same member representative on the varying government commissions since inception. This provides a huge benefit as we have the background and historical perspective for new appointees. Joe Teeling heads this effort and sits on the Commission. He is constantly fighting on behalf of you and all IAHU members making sure any legislation coming from the Commission does no harm to the system that works well for a vast majority of Iowans. This is not to say we are against reform, but rather we are in favor of GOOD reform. This Commission will be continuing to meet over then next three years and your concerns will obviously be heard at the Capitol through Joe and Larry and others on the IAHU Board.
Again, the IAHU Board wants to THANK YOU for your continued support and patience during this phase in combining our local chapters. We are extremely excited about the future of our industry and the added long-term benefits to you through our merger! As the hurdles become fewer and fewer, your Association will be well situated for the future!
Best Regards,
Eric Kohlsdorf
President
Iowa Association of Health Underwriters
Message from the IAHU President
In an effort to bring greater value to you, the Iowa Association of Health Underwriters has joined forces with the Iowans for Wellness and Prevention to provide cutting-edge information on issues important to our members.
We have created an industry-specific study to determine which issues are most crucial to you in this economy. The 2009 Iowa Health Broker Wellness and Prevention Study will be conducted through July and August. During this time, our members will be contacted and asked to share their views on wellness and prevention benefits. We have hired Data Point Research, in independent organization, to conduct this study.
The study results will be available once analysis is complete. Participants will receive a free copy of these timely results.
If you have not received an invitation letter and would like to participate in the study, please contact Becky@DataPointResearch.com for a unique ID and password. If you have any questions, please contact Iowans for Wellness and Prevention at (515) 226-0698.
This is an exciting time in our industry. We look forward to providing you with this essential information.
Eric Kohlsdorf
President
Iowa Association of Health Underwriters
Your Membership with this Association comes with the following valuable Benefits
- Subscription to Health Insurance Underwriter monthly magazine
- Top Quality Representation in Washington DC
- Weekly Updates from Washington
- Network with Your Peers
- Member Discount Programs
- Annual Nationwide Conventions and Conferences
- NAHU Education
Disclaimer: 40% of State and Local dues are tax deductible with the remainder retaining the services of a lobbyist to represent the interests of IAHU members.
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