, 10 tweets, 6 min read Read on Twitter
1/ Let’s talk about the high cost of employer sponsored health benefits. Employers and workers keep paying *more* for *less.*

Families are paying thousands more per year now than just a few years ago. #NAHUCapCon2019
propub.li/2Vnjyzg
2/ The health care industry is sucking American employers and workers dry, often through hidden side deals. @Marshall_Allen recently looked at the way insurance companies influence the brokers who advise employers. propub.li/2Vnjyzg
3/ Today, insurance brokers gather for #NAHUCapCon2019, a health reform lobbying conference in Washington D.C.

Brokers tell me their industry is evolving in the way it handles payments from insurers.
4/ Health insurers often give lucrative commissions and bonuses — from $100,000 payouts to a chance to bat against Mariano Rivera — to brokers who advise employers.

It's a “classic conflict of interest” that drives up costs, critics say.

#NAHUCapCon2019 propub.li/2Vnjyzg
5/ Commissions may be 3-5% of the total premium spend. In those cases brokers make more when workers pay more. “It has been in the best interest of a broker, from a financial point of view, to keep that premium moving up,” one broker told me.

#NAHUCapCon2019
6/ Insurers also may give bonuses to brokers. Some depend on how many workers or employer groups the broker reels into the insurer, or retains. Like an airline rewards program. That might make the broker loyal to the insurer.

#NAHUCapCon2019
7/ @Marshall_Allen sent questions about bonuses to ten of the largest broker agencies — billion dollar companies. (ahem, #NAHUCapCon2019.)

They didn’t want to talk about it. The questions would be good for *all* employers to ask of their brokers: documentcloud.org/documents/5683…
8/ It doesn’t have to be this way.

Some brokers, like David Contorno, are trying to change the game by getting paid directly by employers. They say it eliminates the conflict of interest. propub.li/2Vnjyzg
9/ Insurance industry officials told us the money they pay brokers is standard operating procedure, and that they always encourage brokers to match employers with the best benefits.

propub.li/2Vnjyzg
10/ Do you work in health insurance?

@Marshall_Allen is investigating the way we pay for health care and wants to hear from you. Fill out this questionnaire: propub.li/2U5Gx1S
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