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June 27, 2011 at 08:00 PM
SAN ANTONIO — The National Association of Health Underwriters (NAHU) began its 81st annual convention this weekend with members sounding like beachfront homeowners going through the early stages of a long-anticipated hurricane.
Chris Harrison, the regional vice president representing NAHU’s southeastern region, said 
the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) is simply the name for a storm that has long been in the formation stages.
“Health care has been on the debate front for 20 plus years,” Harrison said.
No one at NAHU, Arlington, Va., is claiming to know just what storm will look like in three years, or even whether PPACA will still be here in anything like the current form. But Mark Riley, an Irmo, S.C., benefits specialist, said NAHU members have to learn how the health care system is supposed to work under PPACA.
“I think we have to prepare for the change now,” Riley said. “We can’t wait to see if [the system is] going to change. If we wait, it’s too late.”
 NAHU 2011Live Twitter Coverage – June 26-28 |
Health insurance agents and brokers must respond to PPACA with the attitude that changes bring opportunities, according to Ruthann Laswick, a NAHU regional vice president and candidate for secretary, said
“We will survive” Laswick said. “There’s no doubt in my mind about that. But we’re never going to go back to the way it was.”
One thing agents and NAHU have going for them is that many energetic young agents and brokers are taking active leadership roles in local NAHU chapters, according to Steven Selinsky, NAHU’s outgoing president.
