Efforts in the Senate are Underway, Led by Senator Rockefeller (D-WV), to Have Expected Commercial Insurance Market Reforms Also Apply to Self-Insured Health Plans
SIIA’s Government Relations Staff have begun an aggressive lobbying campaign to educate Members of Congress as to why this would be harmful to the industry and the millions of Americans who currently receive healthcare coverage through self-insured plans. Our arguments center on the significant differences between commercial insurance plans and self-insured plans. We make the point that as such, applying reforms based on the nature of commercial insurance to significantly differing self-insured plans will be very harmful and potentially unworkable for our industry. Combined with this point, it is also emphasized that there are already numerous Federal regulations in place, written and enacted specifically with the structure of employer-sponsored, self-insured plans in mind, that provide numerous consumer protections to plan beneficiaries. If supporters of this effort are unsuccessful during the process of merging the two Senate bills, SIIA Staff expect that there will be an amendment offered during Senate floor action.
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