Check our website at www.naifa-jacksonville.org for the latest news and updates.

FROM THE NAIFA BLOG:

Congress and the administration will be responsible for a number of decisions and actions that will impact NAIFA members and their clients, including potential revision or repeal of the Department of Labor fiduciary rule, and the Affordable Care Act, and consideration of tax reform proposals.

"NAIFA and our members possess a profound expertise on insurance and financial matters," said NAIFA President Paul Dougherty. "That makes us the ideal association to educate Congress and regulators about the real-life effects of their decisions on people who are preparing for retirement, running small businesses, managing health- and disability-related risks, and protecting the long-term financial security of their families."

Along with the other representatives and senators elected yesterday, former Congressman and NAIFA member Brad Schneider will return to Congress to represent the tenth district of Illinois. NAIFA also would like to congratulate Al Lawson, who will represent Florida's fifth district in the House of Representatives. Currently a state senator, Lawson has been an agent with Northwestern Mutual Financial Network since 1976, and has been a long-time NAIFA member.

"Al Lawson brings a wealth of experience and industry knowledge as a business owner and insurance and financial advisor that will greatly benefit his constituents," said Dougherty. "He certainly understands the issues and legislation that could affect advisors and their clients, so I look forward to working with him in Washington."

Visit the NAIFA Blog at www.naifa.org/news-publications/naifa-blog.

So Now What?

Submitted by Scott Fjelstad, NAIFA-Jacksonville Health Chair

On behalf of Rogers Benefit Group

Most of us woke upon November 9th shocked by the results of the presidential election. Certainly the implications are substantial. Nature abhors a vacuum and we know that it will be filled. Health brokers and consultants are all scratching their collective heads trying to prognosticate about the future of the business and healthcare in general. Trump's policy positions on healthcare have been "lean" at best. He has, however, unequivocally promised to repeal ACA as a priority. He's also spoken vociferously about the greed of big insurance companies and their lobbies. His positions, however, seem to favor keeping the ban on pre-existing conditions, 'taking care of the poor' as it relates to providing health insurance and 'removing the barriers' to across state border competition between health payers. It remains to be seen what that means. He has taken a hard position against the pharmaceutical industry and their excessive profits indicating an opportunity to set price limits.

Please see Bob Laszewski's, post - pretty interesting. Plenty of changes ahead. Having served in public office myself, I pray that our elected officials realize that public service is a privilege and a responsibility. Our nation needs humility. Hope you all become part of a positive, proactive dialogue. As professionals we have a duty to our plan sponsors to keep them informed and to encourage their involvement in any proposed legislative change that might impact them. Wow.

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2016

There is no doubt Obamacare is dead.

The only question is just exactly how Republicans will get rid of it.

While Republicans have the votes they need in the House, Republicans will not have the 60-vote Senate supermajority necessary to get rid of all of it. Therefore, they will use their slim Senate majority an Senate budget reconciliation rules. It takes just 51 Senators to make spending decisions.

There are two routes they will consider:

1. Immediate repeal and replace that can rebuild insurance reform under the Senate 51-vote budget rule. Following this route will mean that the pre-existing condition reforms, for example, would have to remain in any new law because they are no budget related and would have to stay. The individual mandate (the Supreme Court declared it a tax) could be done away with as well as all of the exchange subsidies and the Medicaid expansion because they are spending related. Just what this path would look like in detail will depend upon what Senate budget rules ultimately determine to be budget items and whether that would be enough to build a health law consistent with a Republican vision. 
         
2. Effectively repealing by using the Senate 51-vote budget rules to gut the financing of the law on a future date certain. That would be followed by the Republicans saying to the country and the Democrats that Obamacare would continue as is until that future date-- Obamacare would continue to cover everyone in the exchanges and under Medicaid. But if Democrats didn't cooperate in legislating a new health insurance law, they will argue, it will be on the head of the Democrats that people lost their coverage on the day funding ends. This course could have the effect of forcing the Congress to agree on a new bipartisan path for health insurance reform -- or result in one incredible implosion of coverage if the Democrats don't cooperate.

Either way, Obamacare is over.

The big stakeholder lobbies -- insurance companies, hospitals, pharma and doctors, will all be seen by the Trump administration as having been collaborators with the Democrats to pass this law in the first place. As a result, their organized lobbies will have far less to say this time. Insurers in particular, some CEO's were big cheerleaders when the law originally launched, are in a particularly difficult spot with this regard.

For victorious Republicans, Obamacare may well be the one thing that represents what the Obama years have stood for and therefore needs to be dismantled sooner rather than later.

Trump and Pence repeatedly made it clear that Obamacare would be repealed and replaced. They now have a mandate to do it and their supporters expect results. No Republican is going to stand in front of that freight train.

But, there is much more to consider here. The Obamacare exchanges are now in an underwriting free fall -- how much worse will this election make things before Republicans address it? Will carriers begin to pull out in increasing numbers not wanting to be the last haven for a worsening pool? How can anything bipartisan be accomplished given the start ideological differences between Democrats and Republicans on the health care issue? More on all of this later -- it's now 3am!

To say it is a new day in Washington, DC may be the understatement of them all.

NAIFA MEMBER BENEFIT OF THE MONTH