And closer to home, enrollment's getting there. It's probably a little farther along on the retirement side of things, but we've still got some ground to cover.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not rebelling against this incessant tech creep because my three-month-old iPad becomes obsolete next week. Or because I'm struggling with the early part of my forties. Or because I've spent my whole career working in print.

Actually, I don't feel like I'm rebelling against it at all. I do all right for an older cat (a word I actually had to define for my oldest daughter at parent-teacher conferences last week). I do a lot of my writing from that self-same iPad. I've been blogging myself for a few years now (which suddenly makes Superman's alter ego seem hopelessly behind the times).

I don't need to talk to you about technology. From what I've seen, the broker community has done a remarkable job adapting to a rapidly shifting environment and have managed to keep up with the carriers and their clients—and actually stay ahead of the regulators. I 've seen lot of it first-hand: I remember clearly sorting through ballots by hand for our first Readers Choice and Buyers' Guide issues only eight years—because we received them all by fax.

In fact, as we reported a few weeks back, it's the providers who are really lagging in the high-tech transformation of health care. Consumers are more than ready to do anything and everything online, from ticking through their voluntary options at work to scrolling through the results of their latest blood test. It's everyone else who needs to catch up.

I bring this all up by way of reinforcing my belief that brokers have weathered plenty of storms over the years. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act isn't our first real challenge. And it certainly won't be our last. And no matter who we elect next month, the law (or at least chunks of it) will still be here. And those exchanges are here to stay no matter what. We just need to find—or make—our own place within it.