Getting ahead of the health-reform curve

One side is protesting the very idea of health reform. The other is trying to push for more than it seems we’re likely to get. Jeanne Spath is trying to sort through the back-and-forth so she can be among the first out of the chute selling health insurance post-reform.

“What we want to do is what we’ve tried to do since we started – to find a way for employers to offer health insurance and have it be cost-effective. Because a lot of reasons that small businesses don’t offer health insurance is because they feel they can’t afford it,” said Spath, one of the principals in the Harrisonburg-based Infinite Insurance Solutions LLC, which is banking on the notion that reform is coming and that the system post-reform will still very much resemble the system of today that has private insurance companies providing the bulk of coverage solutions.

Spath is “trying to be proactive as opposed to being reactive” to the reform environment on Capitol Hill. “We have a president who has decided this is something we have to do,” Spath said. “Regardless, you’re going to have individuals who need health-care coverage. We’ve been hearing from individuals who are dealing with and struggling with that issue for the past year. We’ve been up on what’s going on because that’s what our customers demand.”

The approach for Spath at Infinite Insurance Solutions is simple at its essence. “You listen to what’s being said. I look at the different news media to see what is being talked about. Then I take what is being said and go online to do research to see where things are really going,” said Spath, who has also made it a top priority to read the bills under consideration so she can get as good a handle on what they contain as she can.

“We have government-run health care. We have Medicare. If you talk to folks who have Medicare, are they able to totally rely on that for their health care? No. They get Medicare supplements, they get Medicare Advantage, they get Part D for prescriptions. There is still going to have to be something that can add to whatever the basic plan is,” Spath said.

– Story by Chris Graham