Bruce Benton in as NAHU President

The National Association of Health Underwriters (NAHU) has installed its 2012-2013 board.

Bruce Benton, the new president, is a partner at Genesis Financial & Insurance Services, Sherman Oaks, Calif. He succeeds Mel Schlesinger of Living Benefit Insurance, Winston-Salem, N.C., who will serve on the board at NAHU, Washington., as immediate past president.

Genesis Financial has been offering health savings account (HSA) services, financial services for individuals facing life-threatening illnesses, long-term care insurance (LTCI), and human resources services and payroll services as well as major medical insurance and traditional employee benefits products.

Benton got into the insurance business in 1981, as an agent selling life, disability and financial services products with Equitable Life, according to the Genesis Financial website. He’s been at Genesis Financial since 1998. He also is a musician who left school to sign a recording contract with a record company, and he has played in a local band while working in the insurance industry.

Tom Harte, the president-elect, is president of Landmark Benefits Inc., Chester, N.H.

Harte helped NAHU explain why consumers should care about the full cost of health care, not just the patient’s share of the cost, in a video posted on the NAHU website. Harte told consumers that MRIs can be three times as expensive at some facilities as at others, and that CT scans at some facilities are more than four times as expensive as at others.