Happy New Year from your State Legislative Chair!  What a year this has started out to be.  The economy is sagging, companies are struggling to stay afloat, and as a result,  benefits and/or bodies are cut – either way, for us it means working harder to come up with creative solutions while our own revenues dip. 

But while your activities are focused on the crises at hand, I urge you not to ignore the bigger changes that are facing our profession and the way health insurance is purchased. Across the nation, state legislatures are proposing the creation of ‘exchanges’ or ‘connectors’ to centralize the purchase of individual and/or group health insurance.  Without careful attention and communication with legislators, we can easily be written out of the health insurance process, whether it happens state by state, or with the passage of national health care reform.

Here in Massachusetts, we are living the reality of what is still just a proposal in other states.  We have something to say.  We should be shouting it from the rooftops.  We should be rallying the rest of the brokers in our state (who don’t even have an idea of the work we are doing to protect their jobs!) to support our position on important issues. We should be going to Washington DC to tell our side of the story, the reality of our “model” legislation.  We should be helping our colleagues in other states understand what works and what doesn’t so they can educate their legislators. 

MassAHU is doing all those things.  We have proposed legislation to help get representation on the Connector board.  We have joined the Coalition for Affordable Health to take issue with costly requirements of minimum creditable coverage.  We are on our way to Capitol Conference to participate in educating our colleagues and national legislative representatives about our model of health care reform, and what needs to change to make it work.  But who are WE?  Are we YOU?

I know you are a member if you are receiving this legislative message.  But are you an active member?  I invite you to step up your membership this year – not just in dollars and cents but in value.  Become involved.  Find your voice.  Join our Legislative committee.  Contribute to our PAC.  Call a colleague and insist that they become a member.  Come to Washington D.C. for Capitol Conference.  Help us visit our legislators on Capitol Hill.  Help us connect with our local legislators.  This invitation is exclusively for YOU.

For your comments or concerns, please email MassAHU Association Manager Kate Bardsley at kbardsley@massahu.org