As one of your constituents who is deeply involved in securing and
servicing affordable health insurance coverage for hundreds of employers
and individuals, I am very interested in being a constructive part of
national health care reform.

Professionally licensed health insurance agents, brokers and consultants
like myself provide valuable services to individuals and employers to
obtain prices for coverage that best fits their needs. We design benefit
plans, explain coordination issues of public and private benefits, and
solve problems that may occur once coverage is in place. We also help
design and implement cutting edge health promotion and wellness programs
for employers—a focus that everyone agrees is key to combating increasing
health care costs.

My profession is subject to rigorous licensing and continuing education
requirements and serve a proud and important role as advocates for their
clients. We help gain coverage for and service the benefit needs of
millions of Americans.

I am very concerned that some in Congress believe that agents and brokers
merely add unnecessary expense to the cost of health insurance, and that a
government-run entity can substitute for the role and value of
professional benefit specialists. However, the record clearly indicates
that government bureaucrats are ill-equipped to provide the personal
service, timely objective information, guidance and accountability that
professionally trained and licensed agents and brokers deliver on a daily
basis.

Recent evidence of the performance of two prominent government-run call
centers gives pause to the idea of entrusting government to be the best
advocate for consumers.

1-800-MEDICARE: A recent U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging hearing
and investigation on the performance of the 1-800-MEDICARE call center
identified continued numerous problems with the service given to Medicare
beneficiaries. Blatant shortcomings include: • confusing interactive
voice response menu options • unacceptably long wait times―up to
one hour during peak call periods • disconnected calls • technical and
infrastructure failures • inappropriate referrals to other programs •
jargon-filled and error-ridden scripts that are used by customer service
representatives to respond to caller inquiries • oversight inadequacies
and training deficiencies • incorrect information routinely being
dispensed by customer service representatives.

Internal Revenue Service’s Taxpayer Telephone Assistance: The IRS taxpayer
telephone assistance services continue to experience significant problems.
According to a 2008 GAO study: • the number of toll-free callers who
received busy signals or were disconnected from the IRS increased nearly
10 times over the previous year • the caller abandon rate more than
doubled over the previous year • the average speed of answer (the length
of time taxpayers wait to get their calls answered) nearly doubled from
2007, to almost nine minutes.

Whether issues involve compliance with or navigating options on state and
federal laws, regulations and issues (including tax decisions, HIPAA,
ERISA, COBRA, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Genetic
Nondiscrimination Act, etc.), professionally licensed and trained agents,
brokers and consultants are there every day as consumer advocates. They
provide peace of mind to millions of employers, workers, individuals and
families.

Though government-run call centers have a time and a place in providing
basic information and service, they cannot replace the high level of
personal service, policy knowledge and accountability that distinguishes
the professional agent, broker and consultant.

Sincerely,