New Orleans Association of Health Underwriters

NAHU's strength in the health care reform debate is directly proportionate to our service to our clients. Our clients have come to know and respect our knowledge of health coverage issues and the complexities of health reform. Our relationship with individual consumers and employers is a powerful force which can turn the tide of the health care reform debate.

Coordinated grassroots advocacy will be the key to our continued success in the future. We must be able to mobilize people in every congressional district throughout the country to be effective. Every NAHU member must become politically active if we are to continue to succeed in the health care arena.

You can use Operation Shout any time to contact your national, state or local leaders. 

The future is yours to take! Be a leader! Take Action Now!

Go to Operation Shout

NAHU has 20,000 members across the country; you are the reason we exist. Your participation in lobbying and advocacy is the reason we've become a force in Washington and in state houses across the country. Your recruitment efforts are why membership is up 33% over the past five years. Your contribution of your time and talents is why we have over 200 chapters across the country.

We never want to take these efforts for granted because, without you, we would suffer the fate experienced by countless other nonprofit associations: declining numbers, shaky finances and a demoralized membership.

NAHU created the President's Triple Crown Program to recognize those members whose individual contributions to NAHU help advance the association's mission. Like baseball's Triple Crown, it recognizes accomplishments in three key areas. However, while baseball's Triple Crown hasn't been won since 1967, NAHU's Triple Crown can be won every year by hundreds of our members.

To qualify for the Triple Crown, within the calendar year (01/01-12/31), a member must:

HUPAC: Participate in $10 x 12 draft program or contribute $150 total
Membership: Recruit two or more new members
Advocacy: Use Operation Shout to send three or more messages

Last year, the New Orleans chapter members who won the President's Triple Crown were Denny Ebersole, Cindy Osborne and Jennifer Toups.

Good Luck!

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After missing a deadline to wrap up work on a planned health care overhaul in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, federal health officials are in Louisiana this week to negotiate the final details of a possible revamp.

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt is pushing for the state's plan to provide insurance coverage for most of the estimated 127,000 people in the four-parish New Orleans area who currently don't have insurance.
Leavitt's office said the health secretary will outline "three models" for the restructured health system on Wednesday. He's also meeting privately with state health care officials, lawmakers and others while he's in town.

Any health care spending changes in Louisiana's care for the uninsured would have to get legislative approval in the regular state budget process. But the state also needs approval from Leavitt's office to make rule changes to how the state can use federal dollars for health care.

The health care redesign blueprint submitted by the state to Leavitt's office would cost $500 million more than the state currently pays in Orleans, Jefferson, Plaquemines and St. Bernard parishes for health care for the uninsured.

State officials want more federal money to cover the costs — and that has become the sticking point of the negotiations.

Senate President Don Hines and Senate Health and Welfare Committee Chairman Joe McPherson have complained that Leavitt was trying to force an expensive insurance plan on Louisiana without providing the funding needed to cover the costs. Hines, D-Bunkie, called it a "scheme hatched in Washington, and the gold didn't come with the egg."

Louisiana officials submitted a proposed revamp of the New Orleans health care system to Leavitt in October, and though federal officials had said they wanted to complete work on the redesign by the end of the year, that deadline passed without a final agreement.

The proposed redesign would work to give uninsured in the New Orleans area a type of employer- and state-subsidized health insurance that would let them choose where they receive care.

Backers of the plan say it would provide the poor and uninsured with the same options as insured patients who go to private hospitals and doctors' offices and would provide better care management to catch diseases earlier and keep patients out of more costly emergency rooms.

Currently, Louisiana funnels most of the state and federal dollars it spends on health care for the uninsured to the charity hospitals, but Katrina damaged the New Orleans charity hospital facilities in August 2005.

Opponents of the redesign plan say it would siphon dollars away from the charity and rural hospitals, doing away with the safety net facilities while not necessarily catching all the uninsured.

• Web Seminars: The Leading Producers Round Table sponsors several Web seminars each year. The Web seminars will deal with advanced topics that are of interest to the top producers in the industry. The seminars will be open to the general public, but LPRT qualifiers will be able to attend these Web seminars free of charge.
  
• LPRT Educational Track at the NAHU Annual Convention  There will be an LPRT-focused educational track at the NAHU Annual Convention. This educational track, like the LPRT Web seminars, will deal with advanced topics.
  
• LPRT Qualifier Discounts A 5% discount on all NAHU services and meetings, including Capitol Conference and the Annual  Convention, will be given to qualifiers at the Leading Producers and Presidents’ Council levels of production.   A 10% discount on all NAHU services and meetings, including Capitol Conference and the Annual Convention, will be given to qualifiers at the Eagle and Golden Eagle levels of production and Lifetime qualifiers.
  
• LPRT Products The Leading Producers Round Table will offer LPRT logo merchandise.
  
• Recognition  The Leading Producers Round Table recognizes qualifiers in myriad ways for their outstanding   achievements.  LPRT qualifiers receive a certificate with their name and level of qualification each year  until they attain Lifetime status. Lifetime qualifiers receive a lifetime achievement plaque. Additionally, Golden Eagle qualifiers receive an eagle statue. Qualifiers also receive an LPRT pin, which is usually presented at local or regional leadership conferences.