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NEWS RELEASE
October 13, 2009
Senate Finance Committee-approved measure offers most promising approach to health care reform, but concerns remainWASHINGTON, D.C. — "While the legislation is far from perfect, we commend the Senate Finance Committee on the passage of the America's Healthy Future Act, the most sensible, balanced health care reform legislation considered by Congress to date," said American Benefits Council President James A. Klein today. "As the Senate - and the full Congress - continue the legislative process, we believe the Senate Finance Committee bill provides the most promising framework for achieving much-need health reform while preserving high-quality employer-sponsored coverage on which more than 160 million Americans depend," Klein said."The America's Healthy Future Act wisely avoids many of the destabilizing provisions included in other legislative proposals, such as a highly intrusive employer 'pay' or 'play' mandate, changes to ERISA to invite state regulation of multi-state employer-sponsored health plans, and a public health insurance option that would shift costs to other payors," Klein said. "More work is needed to ensure the highest possible number of individuals obtain health coverage so that sustainable health insurance reform can be achieved. In particular, weak enforcement of the individual mandate will likely cause many healthy people to refrain from buying coverage until they are sick. The Council continues to have serious concerns with other aspects of this measure, particularly the complicated and costly excise tax on high cost plans, extensive new fees on health insurers and other stakeholders and the tax on valuable prescription drug coverage for retirees. These costs are all likely to eventually be passed along to employers and employees and would certainly make health care more costly," Klein said. The Council has prepared a list of priority employer issues for lawmakers to consider during the health care debate. "Everyone knows that the most effective and enduring public policy initiatives are those that are developed and approved with broad bipartisan support. We still believe the best chance for a bipartisan health care solution begins with the America's Healthy Future Act and its investment in the well-established, historically successful, highly valued employer-sponsored benefits system," Klein said. For more information, or to arrange an interview with Council staff, please contact Jason Hammersla, Council director of communications, at jhammersla@abcstaff.org or by phone at 202-289-6700 (office) or (202) 253-5458 (cell).
The American Benefits Council is the national trade association for companies concerned about federal legislation and regulations affecting all aspects of the employee benefits system. The Council's members represent the entire spectrum of the private employee benefits community and either sponsor directly or administer retirement and health plans covering more than 100 million Americans.
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