I've pointed out before that one of my favorite scribes once declared that history is more and more a race between education and catastrophe.
So, yeah, Congress made history Sunday. Now, whether that thrills or outrages, that's up to you.
As a journalist who's made a career out of observing and writing about moments like these, helping sketch out history's first draft, I find it exciting. As editor of Benefits Selling, who's spent the last six years writing for you, I'm terrified.
In fact, I've spent my entire morning talking to readers - brokers, TPAs, and even a couple of other journalists types - trying to check the pulse (if you'll pardon the health care analogy).
For my friends on the right - which is most of you - there certainly is cause for concern. While the most threatening aspects of this bill don't kick in until 2014, the tax and rate increase won't wait. And those exchanges present the biggest threat. They could very well do to brokers what Travelocity and Orbitz did to travel agents. But we'll see.
And to my friends on the left, I just have one question: If this bill was supposed to take care of the big bad insurance companies, why are their stocks skyrocketing today?
By the way, has it occurred to anyone that maybe if we as brokers and carriers had done our jobs better, that if maybe we policed ourselves a little more diligently, then maybe Big Brother wouldn't be breathing down our necks?
Just a thought.
History might not absolve me, the president or those spouting hateful rhetoric, but maybe if we want it to at least remember us, we'll stop pointing fingers and complaining about the changes we're facing and start making our own.
My fellow Twits - what are you going to do now? Let me know in 140 characters or less.
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