Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Un(?)Intended Consequences

I forwarded the link to this article to my co-bloggers, with the tongue-in-cheek heading of "Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit selling life insurance." My point was that the "Exchanges" threaten to put health agents out of business:

"Consumers must buy policies from their employers or through the exchanges--but, either way, their choice of coverage is limited to one of four basic insurance plans that the government sanctions."

The whole article is a must-read, but as an agent, I meant that under such a scheme, I'd have to concentrate more on non-health insurance sales. In his reply, my co-blogger Bill made an excellent point:

"Tell your clients to buy it now. Life insurance will only get more expensive as ObamaCare cost controls kick in."

It's spot-on because, given the Death Panels and inevitable rationing, not to mention the death of new medical innovations, we can expect two things:

■ Increased mortality, and

■ Decreased life expectancies

The former means that carriers will need to drastically increase their "reserves" (funds set aside, by law, to fund future expected claims); the latter means that actuaries will have to dramatically reevaluate risk. Both of these will lead to increased premiums for life insurance policies, and, perhaps, fewer choices for those making long-range plans.

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