While the rest of the country — from consumers to brokers to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services — was trying to access the public exchange websites on Oct. 1, the state-run Connecticut exchange enrolled 167 people in health insurance on that day. And even more remarkable for the broker community, 165 of those “had brokers attached to them,” says Paul Smith, broker at Paul E. Smith Insurance in Southington, Conn., and past-president of the Connecticut Association of Health Underwriters.
While he didn’t have more recent numbers for brokers’ enrollments to-date, he did say “we are flying in Connecticut” and he thinks it’s all thanks to that state’s leadership. “The CEO of our exchange was one of the main people who put the Massachusetts experience together,” Smith says. “The first thing he realized they did wrong was not getting brokers involved. So first thing he did was to get brokers involved and make sure legislators understood what our role is.”
