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Health Insurance Brokers Eager To Take Advantage Of Health Reform’s $4 Billion Market

The health care reform law will allow private insurance companies to organize their own health insurance exchanges, and already insurance brokers are looking to profit from the provision. The move is a direct affront to the GOP’s unfounded claims of a comprehensive government takeover of the American health care industry, though some consumer advocates are concerned about what this will mean for the future of these exchanges. “It’s going to put these private Internet portals, the regional brokers, the EHealths, on steroids,” said Cindy Gillespie, head of health-care policy at McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP, a Washington law firm that advises brokers. “It’s no longer going to be a marketplace exclusive to the state-run exchanges, and that’s a game-changer, big time.” With 22 million people expected to buy insurance through the exchanges and a “conservative” $15 per person per month commission for private brokers, the health industry’s annual take will reach an estimated $4 billion. The state-based marketplaces are expected to be up-and-running by 2014. — Fatima Najiy

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