Small-group broker says Trump moves may happen fast

Ron Goldstein of CHOICE Administrators is not sure his market will change much

Nov 10, 2016 | By Allison Bell

Ron Goldstein, a small-group broker who helped develop and promote the health insurance exchange concept, says he thinks colleagues should keep doing what they've been doing but prepare to move quickly if the incoming Trump administration changes market rules.

"It's here," Goldstein said today in an interview. "Whatever is going to happen is going to happen. No protest is going to stop what's going to happen."

Brokers have to be ready to embrace the changes and help clients deal with the changes, just as they did when the Affordable Care Act came along, Goldstein said.

"We're going to have to move fast, whatever happens," Goldstein said.

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Goldstein is the president of Orange, California-based Choice Administrators. He's been selling health insurance since 1981, and he's been running private exchange programs since 1996.

Goldstein said the election results are too new for him to have any opinions about what changes will happen when.

But, overall, the effects of the ACA on the small-group market in the communities Choice serves have been modest, and that means the effects of any ACA changes are likely to be modest, Goldstein said.

Some insurers have reported having problems with small-group, but Goldstein said he thinks those problems reflect issues with specific markets and specific carriers, not marketwide problems.

Goldstein said he does expect to see major changes in the individual major medical market rules but is not sure what the changes could look like.

Goldstein said he does think many employers and brokers like the ACA "metal level" system, which classifies how rich a plan's benefits are by describing it as a bronze, silver, gold or platinum plan.

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