Agents, Shmagents! LA Unified to Empower Students to Sell Obamacare

In a June 20 Heartland article, the Los Angeles Unified School District received almost $1 Million in grant money from Covered California to teach students how to sell Obamacare plans to their families and friends.  Apparently the students, in addition to learning the three Rs, are going to be schooled in the ways of Obamacare, PPACA and Covered California so that they can act as "messengers to their own families".  It also appears that in addition to students, staff and perhaps even teachers will be involved in selling health insurance plans for Covered California.

LAUSD will also use tax-paid staff to promote ObamaCare through phone calls to students’ homes, in-class presentations, and meetings with employees eligible for ObamaCare’s taxpayer-covered healthcare, the grant award says.

If the project is successful, Los Angeles families can expect more use of students to push government-preferred messaging.

“Teens are part of a ‘pilot’ program to test whether young people can be trained as messengers to deliver outreach and limited education to family and friends in and around their homes,” said Gayle Pollard-Terry, a LAUSD spokesman, in an email. “Teens will be educating adults that they already know (e.g., family or friends) and not other adults.”

Unlicensed Navigators, unlicensed Direct Benefit Assisters and now unlicensed high school students and staff.  All selling health insurance and not accountable to the California Dept of Insurance for market conduct or sales activities.

And of course agents, the only licensed assisters out there, have to wait until the absolute last minute before the health insurers (of which there won't be even a handful) condescend from on high to tell us what they might actually pay us to sell this stuff.  

I am all for outreach and I understand that certain groups/areas may be underserved currently, but I wonder where the accountability for this is going to rest when mistakes are made (and they will be made, agents carry E&O insurance exactly for that reason).


Dave
www.davefluker.com