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12 HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | NOVEMBER 17, 2025 Jason Gutcheon, a partner at Professional Business Insurers of West Hartford, says insurers have reduced or eliminated broker commissions for Medicare Advantage and other health plans. HBJ Photo | Steve Laschever Market Strain As health insurers slash commissions and trim plan options, CT brokers feel the squeeze much more frequently. "As a result, fully insured small group rates are increasing 15% to 20% a year," he said. Finally, insurers are increasingly cutting broker commissions on certain health plans, threatening a key revenue stream for agencies. Some insurers selling Medicare Advantage plans — private insurance alternatives to traditional Medi- care — have stopped paying broker commissions altogether, citing rising healthcare costs and slower federal reimbursement growth that have squeezed profits in that market. In September, Molina Healthcare told brokers that beginning Jan. 1, it will stop paying commissions in Connecticut on new sales of its Medicare Advantage Prescription Drug plan, though renewal commis- sions will continue. The insurer also recently notified brokers of commis- By David Krechevsky davidk@hartfordbusiness.com J ason Gutcheon has had it. The veteran insurance profes- sional and partner at West Hartford-based Professional Busi- ness Insurers — which sells health- care and other types of coverage to individuals and businesses — said the ever-changing health insurance market in Connecticut "has gone absolutely haywire." He's not just talking about the huge premium increases consumers and small businesses will face next year — state insurance regulators in September approved an average 16.8% rate increase for state-regu- lated individual health plans and an 11% increase for small-group policies in 2026. Gutcheon is also talking about how insurance brokers — who represent consumers, unlike agents who serve carriers — are finding it increasingly difficult to do business. "The broker community is getting squeezed, which ultimately is disrup- tive and not in the best interest of the member insured," he said recently during an interview with Hartford Business Journal. So what exactly does he mean by "squeezed"? Gutcheon points to three major pressures. The first is the continuing exodus of insurance companies from Connecticut's fully insured small-group market. Since 2022, Aetna, Cigna/Oscar Health, ConnectiCare and nonprofit Harvard Pilgrim HealthCare have all left the market. ConnectiCare — acquired by Molina Healthcare in February — exited this past June. That's left just two companies offering fully insured small-group plans in Connecticut: Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield and Oxford Health Plans, owned by United- Healthcare. Gutcheon said the shrinking field means employers face higher costs and fewer benefit options, while brokers' commissions have decreased. His second concern is the rise of the level-funded market, which he says is "completely destroying" the fully insured small-group segment. Level-funded plans are a type of self-insured health coverage in which employers pay employees' medical claims directly, rather than through premiums to an insurer. Because such plans tend to attract compa- nies with the healthiest employees, Gutcheon said, the remaining fully insured market is left serving a disproportionate share of higher-cost, less healthy employees, who visit doctors and utilize insurance benefits