I’ve always wondered which industry could take over tobacco’s spot as America’s most reviled.  Found it:  Insurers.  Although there are a lot of good people who work in insurance, the big insurers’ trade association leaders are killing the profession’s reputation.  Unless their "leaders" meaningfully come to the table in this health care discussion, they’re going to have a lot of work to do to enhance how people view them nationally. 

Here’s one such example from long-term care, that illustrates tone deafness occurring in the  insurance industry right now.  So the American Concil of Life Insurers (ACLI) led by former Oklahoma Governor Frank Keating has been blasting the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports Plan (CLASS).  A few excerpts from a letter Keating wrote to Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius:

ACLI:  ACLI supports the goal of the CLASS Program to help adults with severe functional impairments obtain the services and supports they need to maintain their independence, while providing them with choices about community participation, education and emploument.

Ecumen:  Appreciate your support of the goals ACLI.  Then work with senior services and disability advocates and others to include the CLASS Plan in health care reform.

ACLI:  However, we are concerned that the $50 a day benefit provided to workers would be wholly inadequate to cover the full cost of their potential long-term care needs. 

Ecumen:  From the outset this was never designed to pay for everything.  It sure would help to get an extra $18,000+ per year, though wouldn’t it? I It also might make people more likely to buy a supplement policy from one of your members for full coverage.  Geez, you’ve been selling this product for 30 years and it’s still fledgling with 5% pick up nationally.  Let’s try something different – it could get you more sales – and empower people to live better lives.  And it would lead to authenticity in your organization’s tagline:  Financial Security.  For Life.

ACLI:  CLASS Act enrollees may well avoid exploring long-term care insurance, only to be surprised how little coverage they have at their most vulnerable moment.

Ecumen:  And that’s different from today or the 29 years prior that you’ve been selling the product?  See note on supplemental policies above.

ACLI:  Moreover, the CLASS Act is actuarially unsound.

Ecumen:  The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the CLASS Act’s net effect on the federal budget would be
to reduce the budget deficit by about $74 billion during the 2010–2019 period.4 These estimates are based
on an average monthly premium of $123 and a cash daily benefit of $75 for life, with no underwriting, that
preserves the program’s solvency for 75 years. It also assumes the premium amount would not change
once an individual enrolls, however the benefit payment would rise each year with inflation. The CBO also
estimates a reduction in Medicaid spending over 10 years because some individuals who would receive
CLASS benefits would otherwise have had Medicaid pay for those long-term services and supports. The
estimated reduction in the federal budget deficit over the 10 year period is the result of the five-year vesting
requirement; the payout of benefits would not begin until 2016, five years after the initial enrollment in 2011.

Mr. Keating, please become part of the solution and grasp opportunites in the CLASS Plan:  There can be a great deal of common ground here.  You can increase your members’ 5% sales rate, improve people’s lives and enhance your industry’s reputation at the same time.  There’s still time for you to write another letter . . .

For more on the CLASS Plan, go to this forum held in Washington, D.C. recently by the Kaiser Family Foundation.