The American health care system is financed through for-profit insurers while a Bismarck health care system is not. American health care is racing towards a major upheaval and the BUCAs know it.
The BUCAs Are Poised To Win
The four major health insurance companies left active in the United States are vying for more government contracts. They want to be in position to be claim administrators for future government health care schemes.
Will Brokers Continue To Be Relevant?
The answer is yes. But the key question American health insurance brokers will be concerned about is how will their compensation be affected? For a clue lets look at how German health insurance brokers are doing these days.
According to an article in The Geneva Risk and Insurance Review German health insurance brokers can earn “commissions of 6 or 7 monthly premiums (approximately 1500 Euros to 1800 Euros) for a new SubstHI contract. Some brokers have even successfully negotiated commissions up to 21 monthly premiums for one new SubstHI contract.”
If we’re reading this right, brokers will be doing quite well especially if they practice churning – “some insurance intermediaries began reshuffling: steering consumers from one company to another, almost on a yearly basis, to maximize their commission income (see, i.e., Tica and Weißenberger 2022, for further details). The latter behavior led to intense competition for new customers and increasing acquisition costs.”
Everyone agrees, both democrats and republicans, the American health care system is broken and unsustainable. Without question more government control of health care finance will continue. The Bismarck model, a compromise between socialism and capitalism, is likely to be the future of American health care delivery. A bi-partisan majority will make sure of that.
