Congress Turns the Page

Last year may have been the busiest 12 months ever for our Capitol Hill team. Congress embarked upon sweeping reforms of the financial services and health care industries and, in many cases, our members’ very livelihoods were at stake.

During the health care reform battle, proposals to create a govern­ment-run “public option” that would unfairly compete with the pri­vate market, to eliminate the McCarran Ferguson antitrust exemption, to establish a “National Exchange,” to prohibit agents from selling health insurance inside the new Exchanges and to federally regulate agent commissions all were put forward in Congress.

During the financial services regula­tory reform debate, some called on the federal government to take over regulating insurance (mainly because of the “failure” of AIG). Other outlandish proposals included allowing the newly created Federal Insurance Office (FIO) to mandate that insurance agents turn over data to them via subpoenas and to have the Consumer Financial Protec­tion Bureau (CFPB) regulate insurance transactions.

The Big “I” fought hard against each of these proposals, and together we prevailed on a host of issues. While remaining steadfastly opposed to the final health care reform law, the Big “I” was able to obtain significant improvements to the bill and there is no government-run option, the McCarran Ferguson exemption remains, there are “State Exchanges,” agents are allowed to sell inside of Exchanges and the federal gov­ernment was not given authority to regulate agent commissions. In financial services, states continue to be the day-to-day regulators of insurance, the FIO is prohibited from collecting data from agents and the CFPB has no authority over insurance.

In addition to these major wins, we also finally saw the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) receive a year-long extension and the 2001 and 2003 Bush-era tax cuts received an across the board two- year extension.

While certainly challenging, in many ways I’ll look back upon 2010 as a year of major legislative success for the Big “I,” and this success was the result of two key factors: the dedication of our members who attend our annual Legislative Conference, give to InsurPac and participate in our grassroots alerts; and our hard-working government affairs team.

At the 2010 Big “I” Legislative Conference & Convention, more than 1,100 agents from across the country stormed Capitol Hill and met with many of the 535 congressional offices. Last year, the Big “I” launched grassroots campaigns numerous times. In the 2009–2010 campaign cycle, InsurPac distributed $1,909,040.83 in support of 265 races, winning 247 for a 93% victory rate. And last year our govern­ment affairs staff met with members of Congress and their staff liter­ally thousands of times, stressing the importance of the independent agency system.

As a result of our members’ activism and our staff’s dedication, we helped turn what could have been a year of disaster into a year of success. I am incredibly proud of these achievements but they could not have happened without teamwork.

The 112th Congress will present its own set of challenges and opportunities. The NFIP is set to expire again in September 2011 and could be a major target; in fact, some are already calling on Congress to completely eliminate the NFIP. The administration will negotiate the 2012 Farm Bill and will likely seek to further cut the Federal Crop Insurance Program—cuts that will surely be aimed at our hard work­ing crop insurance agents.

On the side of opportunity, the new House has signaled its desire to both attempt an outright repeal of the health care reform bill as well as address individual parts of the law. We are working to ensure that one of the early to-do items will be to help fix the Medical Loss Ratio (MLR) requirement, which is already having a devastating impact on the agent and broker distribution of health insurance. Additionally, we will continue to push to have Congress streamline the agent licensing process by advancing the “NARAB II” legislation and will continue to oppose federal regulation of insurance.

Our members and our Capitol Hill team will be instrumental in ensuring that 2011 is another success story for our association. By working together, we can continue to protect our industry and best serve America’s families and businesses. Working together, how­ever, means we need you to take action. Number one, make plans to attend the annual Legislative Conference & Convention from April 13–15 in Washington, D.C., so that you can go to Capitol Hill and explain first-hand to your representatives in Congress why the independent insurance agency system is so vital to the economy and to your community. Number two, be active and respond to any grassroots action alerts you receive. And number three, please give to InsurPac so that your voice can be heard loud and clear through­out the year. Success always comes from strength in numbers, and together we can have another successful year in 2011.

—Mike Miley, Big “I” chairman