SUMMARY............

It’s over.

The rhetoric is over. All the mud that was to be slung has been slung. Now it’s time to get to work.

Most disappointing and most important to the insurance industry — not just in Washington where the votes were cast — but to agents everywhere, is the decision by Washington State voters to keep private insurers out of the increasingly expensive workers’ compensation insurance system.

The rate increases that will soon be announced may have the voters wishing they’d made a different decision.

Nationally Republicans won big. Even more interesting, the Tea Party made a mark. How they work with the Republicans in the House and in the Senate, and with Democrats, and how they will wield their newfound power remains to be seen. It will be interesting.

So Republicans took control of the U.S. House of Representatives and made significant gains in the U.S. Senate. Two questions: why and now what? And what does that mean for insurance?

For insurance health care reform is the top news item. Can the Republicans stop ObamaCare or slow it down, or change it significantly. That certainly is the goal of some in the Grand Old Party.

A bigger issue for you personally is how insurance agents will be used in the exchanges that will be set up in each individual state and be in operation by 2014.

Political experts say what we saw yesterday is a course correction. The people have spoken. They really do want change. And they want change — if you’ll pardon us stealing a slogan — they can believe in. Republicans need to remember that.

The people want solutions, not rhetoric. They want a government they can trust and leaders of both parties that they can trust. They want jobs. They want a sound economy. They want to end government waste and big government spending, and on the list goes.

Like the Democrats, the Republicans don’t have a great track record. Polls say the GOP is nearly as disliked as the Democrats. And neither party scores all that well.

The people want the two parties to come up with compromises that solve problems, not that further the party’s goals or ambitions. The people want Congress and the president to work together.

Time will tell whether that message has finally sunk into those running our country. We hope they do get the message and that they do understand.
As far as Insurance commissioners go, democrat Dave Jones won over republican Mike Villines in California.

Oklahoma voters have elected Republican John Doak as their insurance commissioner. Doak has unseated Kim Holland. Holland was recently elected as vice president of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC). The organization will now have to find a replacement.
Nationally, Louisiana’s Charlie Melancon lost his bid for the U.S. Senate to Republican David Vitter.