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| Quote of the Month |
All the beautiful sentiments in the world weigh less than a single lovely action.
- James Russell Lowell |
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Upcoming Meeting
No Meeting Scheduled.
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| February 2009
President’s Message
Question:
How can YOU make a difference in what’s going on in Georgia and in Washington with an average time investment of 10 seconds per week?
Answer:
The Operation Shout program
The most powerful impact you have is to make your voice heard by our lawmakers – Senators and Congressmen.
Question:
Who is ‘YOU?’
Answer:
YOU are our members, YOU are:
- Agents,
- Brokers,
- Employees and Executives of an industry related business, or
- Carrier and Vendor Sales Representatives
Unfortunately, most members have never used Operation Shout. They do not realize it was designed to minimize the impact on our day while keeping us effective at protecting OUR customers, OUR jobs and OUR industry.
With an initial, one-time, five-minute investment to complete your information, your Senators and Congressmen can be determined. Going forward, you can respond to all future Operation Shouts in approximately ten seconds of time!
NAHU’s legislative role is to stand guard on our behalf, sound the alarm when there is a legitimate threat and educate us on the facts of those threats. However, the power of our Association lies within us. These communications with our legislators, though brief and simple, are powerful when they consider how many we represent.
Please take the time to go to www.NAHU.org and sign up for Operation Shout. Then, take action on them when they arrive in your email inbox. I promise that it will take you only a few moments to respond, but the benefits of your voice being heard will be far reaching.
Thanks.
Shan Ricketts - President |
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| The race is on...February 21, 2009, is the date for GAHU's Insure the Cure. Insure the Cure will be held, at the Renaissance Waverly Hotel, GAHU is holding our annual “Insure the Cure” fundraiser for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Last year, with your help, we raised $50,000 for the CF Foundation. Please plan to come and participate!
For more details and registration information go to:
http://www.gahu.org/meetinginfo.php?date=2009-02-21 |
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| First Name |
Last Name |
Designation |
Company |
Chapter |
| Robert |
Brandler |
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Brandler Insurance Services, Inc. |
GAMIDDLE |
| Travis |
Hullinger |
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Aetna |
GASOATLANTA |
| William |
Johnson |
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CIGNA |
GAMIDDLE |
| Jessica |
Montgomery |
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Tolbert and Associates |
GAMIDDLE |
| Faye |
Pitman |
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Cairo Insurance Brokers |
GASOUTH |
| Chuck |
Ray |
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eNrollment Technologies |
GAATLANTA |
| Heather |
Rubnitz |
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Rubnitz & Ebenconcepts |
GACOASTAL |
| Rick |
Simon |
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Walgreens Health Initiatives |
GAATLANTA |
| Jessica |
Stinson |
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BB&T Insurance |
GAMIDDLE |
| Margaret |
Tolbert |
LUTCF |
Tolbert & Associates |
GAMIDDLE |
| Daniel |
Trzos |
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At Work Benefit Co., LLC |
GASOATLANTA |
| Deborah |
Warren |
CISR |
BB&T Insurance Services, Inc |
GAMIDDLE |
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| Expanding Health Coverage:
The Center for Health Transformation (CHT) and the Georgia Association of Health Underwriters invite you to participate in a forum of agents, brokers, and employers. Experts from Georgia’s health insurance community will be discussing new products in response to the 2008 legislation on existing products with new or renewed emphasis on affordability and reaching new markets. You are welcomed to invite your employer clients to this event.
The founder of the Center for Health Transformation (CHT) and former Speaker of the US House of Representatives Newt Gingrich will be making opening remarks. Please plan to join your colleagues at this special event.
Place: Grand Hyatt Atlanta
3300 Peachtree Road
Atlanta GA 30305
Date: Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Time: Registration at 1:45 PM
The program begins promptly at 2:00 PM and lasts until 4:00 PM
For additional information about this exciting event, please contact, Dave Johnson at the Georgia Association of Health Underwriters at 770-923-8769 or insdsj@mindspring.com. |
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| The impact of the proposed Quality Tax Assessment promoted by the Georgia Department of Community Health (DCH) could range from a 1.6 - 3.0% tax assessment on all private insurers. It is speculated that the $120 Million tax assessment price tag to Georgia insured's budgeted by the Governor appeared to have been calculated using ALL private insureds in Georgia...i.e. ERISA and NON-ERISA plans. Cumulatively, the bottom line is a $250M illion dollar assessment plugged into the Governors budget.
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| 2008-2009 SAAHU Monthly Meeting Schedule
Meetings are normally held the 3rd Thursday of every month - February's being Feb. 19th. Please check www.saahu.com for updates. |
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A special thanks to our Day at the Capitol sponsors—
· Lunch Sponsor:
o Blue Cross Blue Shield of Georgia
· Gold Sponsors:
o Assurant
o Cigna
o Humana
· Bronze Sponsors:
o AdminAmerica
o Consumers Life
o E2E Resources
o Principal Financial Group
o Purchasing Alliance Solutions
Legislative Update
The Georgia General Assembly convened for the 2009 session on January 12, 2009. It looks like most of the early part of the session will be consumed by the state budget. For that reason, new health insurance related bills are being introduced very slowly. To date there are only three bills that we are watching.
HB 12 deals with unfair methods of competition and unfair and deceptive acts or practices primarily aimed at members of the armed forces.
HB 80 seems to pick up one part of the Department of Insurance bill from 2008 redefining small group to be 1 to 50 employees. A co-sponsors of this bill is one of our members, Representative John Meadows of the 5th district.
SB 3 is primarily concerned with prior authorization requirements for prescription drugs and to provide for DOI’s oversight of the operation of PBM's (Pharmacy Benefit Managers).
The primary piece of legislation that we expect to see soon deals with the Department of Community Health’s proposal to add a new tax on health insurance plans to fund Medicaid and PeachCare. The tax would increase the cost of health insurance and would cause many currently insured residents of the state to drop their health insurance. It doesn’t look like much on the surface at 1.6%, but the fear is that once in place, DCH would eventually find it necessary to raise the tax to as much as 5.5% of gross premiums for all managed care plans in Georgia. Once in place, the tax would never be removed. Many key legislators are opposed to this new tax, and we expect to see at least one bill to keep DCH from imposing the new tax without having to go through the legislative process. Because Governor Perdue is in favor of the new tax, expect to see a major fight brewing between the General Assembly and the Governor.
There will probably be more health insurance related bills to surface during this session, but we expect them to be few in number. Most legislators are waiting to see what will happen at the federal level where it looks like the democrats want to push through bills that will eventually lead to national health care. As Representative Tom Price pointed out to those attending the Atlanta AHU meeting on January 23rd, the Obama administration is moving so fast that his health care agenda may have been passed by the time NAHU gathers in Washington on March 30th for Capitol Conference. |
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GAHU Local Chapter Meetings - 2009
Atlanta:
- 3rd Friday of each month 7:30 AM - 10:00 AM
Coastal Empire (Savannah):
- 3rd Friday of each month 11:30 AM - 2:00 PM
CSRA (Augusta):
- 2nd Wednesday of each month 7:00 AM - 10:00 AM
Middle Georgia (Macon):
- 2nd Thursday of each month 10:00 AM - 12:00 Noon
This month’s CE meeting on February 11th will be with Bob Barr on Voluntary Products. March 19th’s meeting will be a special 3 Hour CE on Ethics 8:00 AM to Noon.
Northeast Georgia (Commerce):
- 2nd Wednesday of each month 8:30 AM - 10:30 AM
This Months' Topic on February 11th will be with Donald Jackson of Greater Georgia Life with "New Blue Vision" & "TBD."
Northwest Georgia (Calhoun):
- 2nd Wednesday of each month 8:30 AM - 10:30AM
South Atlanta (College Park):
- 3rd Thursday of each month 11:30 AM - 2:00 PM
South Georgia:
- Twice per year – meeting dates and times to be announced.
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