With the Affordable Care Act sign-up deadline next Monday, a Decorah insurance agent says there are still positives and negatives to the law

It's been a busy time for Decorah insurance agent Brian Huinker and others like him who sell health insurance policies.

Monday is the deadline for people to sign up for coverage through the Affordable Care Act, although President Obama now has extended the deadline until April 15thfor people who create an account before March 31st.  This will allow those people a little moretime to decide on their plan and also spread out the website traffic.

Huinker told members of the Decorah Rotary Club on Tuesday that the new health care system still has both positives and negatives.  One thing that Huinker is excited about is the formation of a new health insurance company for Iowa--CoOportunity Health .  Huinker says his firm, Midwest Benefits, still writes more health insurance policies through Blu Cross/Blue Shield, but he says CoOportunity Health has turned into a "major competitor" for BC/BS--and he thinks that's a good development.

On the other hand, many small businesses in the area are struggling to figure out whether they should offer health insurance coverage to their employees or let employees get insurance through the ACA.

For those people who contact his company, the chance for savings is real.  "Some of the stories are incredible," he told the Rotary Club.  That included the woman who hadn't replaced her broken dryer for two years because health insurance was costing her so much.  She said she would take the first two months of savings and finally buy a dryer locally.

Huinker thinking the rural economy around Decorah will benefit from cases such as this.  He says he's talked with a number of people who had to work two jobs--one job just to earn enough money to pay their health insurance premium.  If they can save money on their health insurance bill, they will have money left over to spend in the local economy, he said.

But Huinker is urging people, "You've gotta find an agent."  He says there are 37 health insurance plans for Northeast Iowans to choose from and an agent can prevent people from picking the wrong one.  Besides, notes Huinker, the Affordable Care Act prohibits agents from charging consumers to sign up for the ACA--the agents get paid through the health exchange instead.  People also can callMidwest Group Benefits at (563) 382-9611 to get their application started overthe phone to take advantage of the deadline extension to April 15th.