As a direct result of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) – also known as ObamaCare – health insurance agent and broker commissions have been slashed by as much as 50%. Agencies have been forced to lay off employees, limit products and services, shift to other lines, and have seen significant drops in compensation.

A bipartisan, companion Senate bill to the House bill excluding insurance agent compensation from medical loss ratio (MLR) calculations will be introduced in a few days, although the political environment makes its passage uncertain.

The Obama Administration appears to have used a fairly convoluted process to make clear what many have been suggesting since federal health reform passed in March 2010. Simply put, the Obama Administration, through its U.S. Health and Human Services Department, wants insurance agents and brokers out of providing advice on health plans to consumers and businesses.

The organization representing state insurance commissioners is backing health insurance agents and brokers’ efforts to get their commissions removed from the formula mandating how carriers use premiums they collect

Two insurance trade groups in New York filed a formal appeal of the New York Supreme Court Appellate Division’s decision upholding the state insurance department’s new broker disclosure rule.

The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) is considering alternatives for acquiring exemption of insurance agent and broker compensation from the medical loss ratio (MLR) implementation in addition to the bipartisan bill.

The trickle-down effect of new federal health reform is becoming evident, as insurance agency owners are admitting that they have either cut or are considering making cuts to their staffing. What else can they do?

Some health insurance agents and brokers, responding to cuts to their commissions because of health reform, have cut the services they provide their clients or stopped selling coverage to individuals, according to a new survey.

A consumer advocacy group attacked a bill before Congress seeking to exempt insurance agent and broker commissions from the medical loss ratios, calling it “special interest legislation.”

Two congressmen have introduced legislation that would exclude agent commissions from the medical loss ratios included in the federal health reform law.