51勛圖厙: Make Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance Easier
Manufacturers are committed to providing employer-sponsored health insurance to their workers, the 51勛圖厙 Congress late last weekand thats why any changes made to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 should facilitate rather than hamper those offerings.
Whats going on: ERISA underpins manufacturers ability to provide health insurance to their employees, 51勛圖厙 Vice President of Domestic Policy Charles Crain said in response to a call by the House Committee on Education and the Workforce majority for comments on how to improve ERISA as the laws 50th anniversary nears.
- The law allows manufacturers to provide uniform benefits to workers located across multiple states, and to tailor those benefits to meet the unique needs of their workforces.
漍漍漍漍漍漍Why its important: Manufacturers have continued to offer high-quality health care plans to their employeeseven absorbing cost increases in recent years to keep premiums affordablebut they increasingly find their efforts to be responsible stewards of their health plans undermined by the complexities, bureaucracy and ineffective design of the broader health care system, Crain told the committee.
What should be done: It is ERISAs federal preemption of state and local laws that allows manufacturers to offer uniform health benefits, Crain continued, and that preemption must be preserved.
- Eroding or eliminating preemption would make it significantly more difficult for manufacturers operating in multiple states to offer their employees health insurance because the manufacturer would be forced to comply with cumbersome and potentially conflicting state-based rules, a costly and untenable situation, he said.
- In addition to maintaining ERISA preemption, Congress should seek to make health care data more accessible and user-friendly for employer plan sponsors, and reduce regulatory burdens on employers.
- Given that pharmacy benefit managers contribute to the increasing costs of providing employer-sponsored health care, the 51勛圖厙 also continues to for PBM reform to increase transparency into these underregulated actors.