Health & Wellness
Brokers Get Creative Selling Obamacare
By Donna Gordon
Blankinship
The Associated Press
SEATTLE (AP) — When
Jeff Lindstrom started buy-
ing health insurance-related
Internet domain names a
few years ago, he thought
he was being a smart, cre-
ative businessman.
Lindstrom, an insurance
broker who works in the
Seattle area, bought 40-50
domain names and hit the
jackpot with one choice:
washingtonhealthplanfind-
er.org. No, that’s not the
state’s new health insurance
marketplace. That’s Lind-
strom’s brokerage site.
State officials are worried
that Lindstrom’s site is con-
fusing people searching for
the real exchange site,
wahealthplanfinder.org,
where people can shop for
insurance or see if they
qualify for federal subsidies
under the new health care
law.
They have a point,
acknowledges Lindstrom,
who has been an independ-
ent insurance agent since
2009.
``Our developers did an
almost too good a job on our
website,’’ he said.
It said ``Welcome to the
Exchange!’’ in big, bold
print until the state insur-
ance commissioner sent him
a letter asking him to make
some changes, which he
did.
Stephanie Marquis, a
spokeswoman for the Office
of the Insurance Commis-
sioner, said there’s nothing
wrong with insurance bro-
kers trying to drum up
business around the new
law.
Brokers can offer some
much needed assistance
sorting through the complex
new system, but people
should make sure brokers
are licensed and reputable,
Marquis said. The insurance
commissioner’s
website
allows consumers to check
for licensed brokers and
whether they have had com-
plaints filed against them.
The insurance commis-
sioner’s
website
lists
Lindstrom as a licensed bro-
ker with no investigations or
disciplinary orders.
The insurance commis-
sioner has issues with a few
other sites with names simi-
lar to the official exchange:
One is run by another insur-
ance broker and one is run
by a health insurance com-
pany. They all talk about
health reform and offer to
help people sign up for
insurance.
The people who run the
exchange say they didn’t
buy all the related domain
names because they could-
n’t justify spending the
money.
Lindstrom said he has
talked to state officials
about his site, but ``I’ve
never offered to sell, and they’ve never offered to
buy.’’
He hopes it will continue to bring in new cus-
tomers, but he says he is not trying
to confuse the public.
Brokers are paid monthly by
insurance companies for bringing
them business. That might not hap-
pen anytime soon for brokers like
Lindstrom who are helping their
clients sign up for new policies
through the exchange.
Lindstrom received a letter the
exchange sent to licensed agents
saying the entire broker list may not be on the site
until a month or so after the program’s opening,
which was Oct. 1.
If Lindstrom wants to get paid, he’ll have to
ask his clients to go back to the website and
Although some brokers have expressed con-
cern that the new system will take away business,
Lindstrom hasn’t found that to be the case.
Lindstrom said he’s working non-
stop every day to walk his existing
clients through the system and help
new ones who approach him
through the website.
``Health care reform has caused a
lot of upheaval in the marketplace
for consumers,’’ he said. ``Whenev-
er there’s a lot of upheaval or
changes, brokers or agents get a lot
of calls.’’
Lindstrom said he’s working nonstop every
day to walk his existing clients through the
system and help new ones who
approach him through the website
choose him as a broker after his name is added to
the list.
October 16, 2013
The Portland Skanner Page 7