SIIA, www.siia.org

Senate Finance Committee Nearing Agreement
A team of 6 bi-partisan Members of the Senate Finance Committee are close to reaching agreement on a compromise healthcare reform package. Chairman Baucus’ goal from the start of this process was to introduce a package that was bi-partisan and could garner the 60 votes necessary to pass out of the Senate. The Committee has spent time meeting with various interested parties (including SIIA) and continues to develop cost cutting measures.

SIIA’s Government Relations Office has learned that the compromise package will likely not contain a government-run insurance plan option that is contained in the other partisan approaches. It will instead likely include a proposal to enact “co-operatives”, which would serve as non-profit, privately-run entities that would compete with commercial insurance companies. The Finance package likely will also not include an employer mandate to offer coverage. Instead, opting for what has been termed the “free-rider” approach where an employer is not mandated to offer coverage, but is required to pay 50% of Medicaid costs for any Medicaid eligible employee and 100% of the cost of any Federal coverage subsidy available to a low-income worker.

Preliminary scoring from the Congressional Budget Office estimates that a package with these approaches would cost $900 billion, a total that is approximately $200 billion less than the Senate HELP’s companion bill.

Once a final agreement can be reached, language will be released and officially scored. Dependent on if/when this happens, the Committee could formally proceed with the bill before the August recess. Regardless, there will be no full-Senate consideration of healthcare reform until after Labor Day.

House Moderates and House Leaders Progressing Through Negotiations
As reported, a group of House moderate Democrats, the Blue Dog Coalition, who have threatened to oppose the House’s healthcare reform bill, have been negotiating with House Democrat leadership in an effort to come to a compromise. The Blue Dogs’ concerns stem from a lack of provisions to control costs, a government-run plan that would have competitive advantages over private plans and not enough assistance to small businesses. Representatives of the Blue Dogs, Committee Chairmen and House Leadership have been meeting daily and appear to be close to a final agreement.

In the 2 of the 3 House Committees of jurisdiction over healthcare reform where there were not enough Blue Dogs to block passage, the bill was passed out. In the House Energy and Commerce Committee, there enough Blue Dog Members to block passage of the bill. Here, Committee progress has been at an impasse during the negotiations. With an agreement near, the Energy and Commerce Committee will reconvene this morning.

Click Here to view the letter SIIA recently sent to Blue Dog Members

SIIA, Fellow Business Groups, Defend Against Anti-ERISA Provision in Healthcare Reform
This week, SIIA joined with other employer groups to protest the anti ERISA provisions included in the current House healthcare reform bill. As reported, the bill contains provisions that include; waivers to States that enact single-payer health systems, unlimited State law remedies for employer-sponsored health coverage obtain through health insurance exchanges, and prohibitions on modifications on retiree health plans.

Click Here to view the referenced letter

SIIA Urges the Self-Insurance Industry to Make our Message Heard
SIIA urges all those in the self-insurance industry interested in preserving the way we do business and the benefits we provide to 75 million Americans covered by self-insured plans, to use the resources provided in SIIA’s Grassroots Toolkit and contact their Members of Congress to voice our message.

The threat to the self-insurance industry and the employer-based system under which we operate in has never been more significant. Now is the time to voice our powerful and unified voice to politicians in Washington that we will not stand for any proposals that would cause significant damage to our industry and to those lives we cover.

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This entry was posted by Adam V. Russo on Friday, July 31st, 2009 at 9:45 am and is filed under Health Care Legislation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.