About
Alan Katz is a past president of both the National and the California Associations of Health Underwriters. In 2003 NAHU named Alan the Health Insurance Person of the Year, awarding him that year’s Harold R. Gordon Memorial Award. He was named CAHU Member of the Year in 2000 and 2007.
Alan has long been a strong advocate for agents and the role they play in America’s health care coverage system. In California he represented agents during negotiations over California’s successful small group health insurance reforms (often referred to as AB 1672). Nationally, Alan testified before several Congressional committees while leading NAHU’s opposition to aspects of the Clinton Administration health care reform proposal. In 2007 Alan rejoined the CAHU Board as Vice President of Public Affairs to help lead the organization’s involvement in the health care reform debate kicked off by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. In that role, he was the primary author of CAHU’s Healthy Solutions health care reform plan. He also helped draft NAHU’s health care reform proposal, Healthy Access.
In 2005 Alan co-founded and served as president of Insurance Neighborhood, which is currently in hibernation. Previously Alan served as a Senior Vice President at WellPoint, Inc., the nation’s largest commercial health insurer. During his time with WellPoint Alan led the company’s individual and small group sales team and its eDistribution technology initiatives. Before joining WellPoint, Alan led Centerstone, one of the nation’s largest general agencies. He has been a licensed insurance agent since 1983. In 2007 he formed the Alan Katz Group which, among other initiatives, published the findings of the Trailblazed Sales Project identifying the attitudes, practices and behaviors of successful sales professionals.
Alan has a long history in public service. In addition to assuming leadership roles in a number of community organizations, he served as Chief of Staff to California Lieutenant Governor Leo McCarthy and as a member of the Santa Monica City Council. He has worked on numerous political campaigns, few of them successful. If having been a health insurance executive, a politician and a government official does not reflect a penchant for making questionable life decisions, Alan is also a lawyer and served as an investigating attorney with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.
The Alan Katz Health Care Reform blog was launched on January 2, 2007 and earned two distinctions that year. In September, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch named it one of the five “health care blogs gaining attention in the virtual world” and in December the Sacramento Bee’s CapitolAlert.com added the site to its list of top blogs covering California politics and policy issues. In September 2008, RNCentral.com cited the blog as one of the “100 Best Health Care Policy Blogs” and LexisNexis named this site one of the “Top 50 Blogs for Insurance.”
None of this means his meanderings are worthwhile, but it makes his parents proud.
LIZ said
Please go to http://www.barackobama.com/index.php and host your own healtcare event. IT IS VERY IMPORTANT. Everyone has its own agenda, alternative medicine, mandate healthcare, you name it everyone has it. PLEASE RAISE YOUR VOICE AND MAKE YOUR POINTS CLEAR! SO THE SENATE APPROVES MANDATE INSURANCE FOR ALL. MAKE SURE TO DO IT BETWEEN JUNE 6 AND JUNE 12. HURRY, AFTER THIS A BILL WILL BE PASS.
Taylor Gaddy said
When you say one of the points is to have affordable health care everyone, do you think that includes people with pre-existing conditions?
Alan said
Yes. Democrats and Republicans seem to be in agreement that, whatever reforms emerge, Americans with pre-existing conditions must be able to obtain coverage. The trade-off for this is likely to be that everyone needs to obtain coverage. Otherwise, the resulting adverse selection (people waiting until they are sick or injured before buying coverage) would make health insurance unaffordable.
TN Insurance Agent said
I like the idea, though I think it’s part of a solution. It only increases the cost of one area to decrease the cost in another. Since life insurance premiums are so much cheaper than health premiums, the costs of continuing treatment could very easily cost more than the payout on a life insurance claim.
My two cents on small group and private health plans? Combine plans, diversify among specialized products with different premium price adjustments (attained age/issue age), bundle them, and mitigate the premium increases. For example, take a single health plan with a low deductible and you get a high monthly premium. Lower that monthly premium for a higher deductible and co-insurance, then slide in an issue age medical gap plan to cover the deductible and co-insurance amounts. Specialize cancer coverage in a separate plan. Bundle Life Insurance in the package that includes an Accelerated Benefits Rider. This lowers the costs, because it spreads the risks among different plans, maybe different companies if acting as an independent agent.
This is discussed in more detail in this article:
http://www.edgeoninsurance.com/health-insurance-tips-and-strategy/24-insurance-tips-and-strategies/19-how-combining-health-plans-saves-money
While this mostly applies to self-employed individuals and families, the concept is based in the principle that health insurance is the “sharing” of financial risk.
john said
Currently Health insurance companies make their most money when you die suddenly, after paying all your premiums and not going to get preventative care. This motivates them to put up barriers to you bothering to go to the doctor, high co-pays, calling for permission, high deductibles …
However that motivation could be eliminated if Health Insurance companies were also responsible for your Life Insurance. (like $250,000 or $500,000?)
Suddenly Health Insurance companies would want you to live longer, go to the doctor and get preventative care, and would not put barriers such as high co-pays, calling for permission first, and high deductibles in your way; they instead would be calling you to schedule your next appointment!
The extra cost of this Life Insurance to the individual could then be almost eliminated by having a different organization then pay your health insurance a monthly amount for the privilege of being a beneficiary of your Life Insurance. (This organization would not be allowed to be the Health insurance Company, its subsidiary or parent nor a re-insurer of life benefits with the health insurance company.)
Any Comments / Support for this idea? (I am calling it the “Gold Insurance Reform Proposal”)
John Swain, CEBS, CFP, RPA said
Alan,
I wrote a great deal of AB 1672 business and I applaud that law. I’d like to see that law changed to cover sole proprietors and employers up to 500 employees.
I believe expanding AB 1672 would be good for the following reasons:
• The rates under AB 1672 have been stable.
• The plus or minus 10% underwriting factor is fair.
• Age banded rates controls the risk of changes in the group demographics and fairly charges the group for the medical risk.
• The employer can better control costs by defining the contribution per employee.
• The best part of the small group market in California is that we could offer up to 20+ plan designs, which is the choice the Californians want.
• By offering a wide selection of plan designs, the employer can budget a controllable cost and allow employees to take responsibility for their decisions.
• The defined contribution approach with a wide selection of plans allows the employer the freedom to concentrate on the employer’s core competency.
• Employees become more educated about the choices they have.
• Groups that have more than 50 employees often have challenges obtaining coverage, especially if the group has one or two high claim medical conditions or the group is in an industry the insurance carriers don’t want to cover.
• The platform already exists with the carriers, so mandating the change would be easy.
Of course, the success of any plan comes down to education and communication. Next to a mortgage, health care costs are the single biggest expense families have and they need to understand the big picture. The professional broker today is more a financial planner and educator than a sales person.
I hope California will consider expanding the choices employers have in offering coverage to coworkers, by expanding a law that is already working.
Matt said
Regarding Joe and his distaste for brokers. I disagree with pretty much everything you said. Brokers, just like people, have all types of qualities and personalities. Some brokers are amazing and really care about the client. I work for an agent like that. She doesnt care at renewal time if her commission is cut. She only cares about the client getting the right insurance plan. I disagree with you Joe, completely. You are lumping every Insurance Broker together and that just doesn’t work. Find a broker that will work for YOU.
Brokers are not “just the middle man”. Sad that people even think like that. We provide a very necessary education into this confusing business.
Our expertise and skills are deserving of a salary. Sorry Joe.
Joe said
I tried to read many of your posts but found that you seem to be trying to be the Fox News, of the internet, their so called “fair and balanced” reporting. You fail, of course.
Many of your headings are laughable, one in particular about how agents will help
the patient deal with the Insurance Company. My experience with agents is that you can’t get them on the phone once you sign the policy, their off to their next sucker.
Agents along with Insurance Companies are the problem with health care. They are just middle men, who want a cut of the action, and every year they want a bigger cut. They do not hold the client’s needs in much regard, only how much money they can get out of them. If they have the nerve to actually use their Insurance, watch out. They will do everything to make it difficult to collect.
Their only concern is themselves, making as much money as they can with reckless abandoned, so they can be the darling on Wall Street, that is what they live for, well hookers, golf and alcohol too.
Rita Gibson said
Alan,
Keep up the good work. I read your blog almost daily and hope and pray for the best. This is a very difficult time for us in the insurance business. I worry about my future business income and clients premiums. The problem, as you outlined, is that the legislature wants to ‘do something’ and they may do something adverse to our industry and clients just to ‘do something’ to say they ‘reformed health care’. What a mess. Something good may come of this mess, but I can’t imagine it at this point.
Kathy Blicha said
Alan
Just wanted to let you know that I was at your Fresno Presentation. You were brillant as always……. I have taken the liberty of printing the CAHU presentation and is going to be handing it out to all the producers in our office. Not only do we have a health department, but also comercial and personal lines. I think those producers should know what we in the heath area is facing…..who knows what could hold for other lines as well. Again it was an honor hearing you speak! Great Job! Have a Great Week! Blicha