Who’s Steering The Ship?

You book a cruise for yourself and your family.  You board the ship. Find your cabin. Unpack. Get settled.  You meet in the dining area for a “family pow wow” to schedule what’s next.  Right about this time, you see the captain pass by, so you want to talk to him.  You shake his hand, and tell him that you have been saving up for years, and your family is excited to be on board.

“So, tell me, captain, where is our first stop?” you ask.

“I don’t know”, he says, “You see, I’m not steering the ship.”

“You’re not steering the ship!  You are the captain! It’s your job to steer the ship!”

“Not anymore. You see, with the rising costs of cruises, the government thought it would be better if they hired ‘Navigators’ to do the job of qualified seamen, such as myself.  No one complained about it, so we had to deal with it.”

“Can I trust these ‘Navigators’, I mean, are they qualified to operate a ship full of passengers?”

“They did make them go through an eight hour course in oceanography, and ship building.  They are paying them $26-$48 per hour, and the government is confident that, with that amount of training, they should be able to handle any situation that arises.”

With that, he pats you the back, and excused himself.

The same thing is happening with our healthcare system.  The government will be hiring, en masse, individuals who are NOT licensed agents, to tell the consumers about healthcare options.  To make matters worse, these “Navigators” are not to recommend which plan is best for you – they are there just to tell you what each plan consists of.  For a recommendation, you will still have to seek out a qualified insurance agent.

And, that’s going to be harder to do as this healthcare unfolds.  With decreasing commissions, insurance companies leaving, and the poor education of Navigators, it will be as big a mess as before it began.

Hope you bought travel insurance.