January 10, 2010

Federal Healthcare Reform Negotiations Ongoing; Chamber Continues To Weigh In

The Corona Chamber of Commerce supports reform of the current healthcare system. Most importantly, we support reform of the efforts to control costs and improve quality for both Corona employers and their employees. The Chamber has urged its federal leadership to jettison the current healthcare bill.

“The Corona Chamber concurs with a broad array of groups from all across the spectrum that say this bill is no good,” stated Chamber’s Legislative Action Committee (LAC) Chair, Cynthia Schneider. “Congress should reject this trillion dollar bill that raises taxes by $500 billion, and instead design a targeted bill that addresses healthcare cost without killing jobs, denying care to Medicare patients, or, a particular concern to us, - driving up health care costs in a manner that discriminates in favor of one form of employer health care coverage.  Congress needs to back up, and start over,” continued Schneider.

The Chamber has continued to point out that the bill presently being considered would require California, because of the preponderance of fully insured employer plans, to pay at least 33% more in taxes than states where fewer are enrolled in such plans.  Moreover, the current bill discourages and, in fact, penalizes the type of integrated financing and health delivery models that California has been a pioneer in implementing. Finally, the Chamber believes that tax increases to pay for a public plan, employer mandates, and minimum coverage will do more than devastate the private insurance industry – they could bankrupt the economy.

Schneider added, “Whether it’s at the doctor, in the drugstore, in the hospital or through your paycheck, employers and consumers will pay. It’s a simple matter of arithmetic, you can’t tax medicines, medical devices and health insurance plans without costs being passed along to those consuming. I urge our members to call Congress and tell them, start over.”

November 13, 2009

Chamber Sends Healthcare Reform Message To Senators Feinstein and Boxer

The Corona Chamber sent the following message to United States Senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer today on the passage of the healthcare reform proposal in the House of Representatives now to be debated in the Senate:

The Corona Chamber of Commerce opposes a Senate proposal that has emerged as an annual $6.7 billion tax on healthcare plans. As stated in an earlier letter sent July 27, 2009, the Chamber continues to make it a priority to ensure responsible healthcare infrastructure and insurance policy proposals that result in increased availability of affordable healthcare coverage for employers and their employees.

We are extremely concerned that this tax would have a disproportionate impact on Californians, driving up health plan rates for millions.

We understand that the tax would be levied only on state-licensed, insured plans and not on coverage through self-funded plans. As a result, states such as California, which have the vast majority of their commercially insured population in fully insured plans, would end up shouldering a significantly disproportionate share of the tax burden. As you may already know, in California, 77 percent of the commercially enrolled population is enrolled in fully-insured health plans. Many states have a much lower percentage of the commercially enrolled population in fully-insured plans. We understand that the national average is only 48 percent resulting in California paying at least one-third more than the average state on a per-capita basis if the tax is enacted.

California continues to struggle with its increasing unemployment rate, millions of uninsured and high healthcare costs. California’s employers and consumers should not be asked to pay more than their fair share to help fund coverage expansion. We understand the challenge Congress faces in identifying funding sources to pay for coverage expansion, but funding sources must be equitable and not drive up health care costs in a manner that discriminates in favor of one form of employer paid health care coverage.

There is another perverse result of this tax. Throughout the debate on healthcare reform, there has been agreement on the benefits of integrated financing and health delivery models over fee-for-service models as they promote quality and efficiency through clinical integration and financial prepayment. California has in many ways been a pioneer of these more advanced payment models. Because these models often include a sharing of risk with providers, most state laws (including California’s) consider those to be regulated under state HMO or insurance laws. This means that to be a self-funded plan, it is necessary to avoid shifting risks to providers or integrated care delivery systems through pre-payment.

Because the proposed health plan tax would have the effect of pushing more businesses to avoid the tax by self funding, this would discourage the use of prepaid, integrated systems of care which are highly prevalent in California. Similarly, insured health plans also would be unfairly affected by a proposed fee in the Senate bill that would be levied to help finance a reinsurance program for individual and small group coverage. This program is intended to help stabilize premiums during the first few years of operation of the new “exchanges” through which coverage under health reform will be offered. Insured health plans would be assessed based on the total premium while self-funded plans would be assessed only on the amount of administrative fees, not total health care costs. As a result, self-funded plans would be assessed at a rate of only about 10 percent of insured plans. This has the same effect as the structure of the insurer tax.

Once again, we urge you to focus on consensus areas such as; initiatives to improve quality and lower costs, introducing fair regulation of the insurance market, building a robust marketplace for consumers, and ensure that Californians are not strapped with higher health plan rates if such reform is enacted.
 

September 1, 2009

Chamber Fights Federal Mandated Healthcare Plans
 

It is the long standing priority of the Corona Chamber of Commerce to support responsible healthcare infrastructure and insurance policy proposals that result in increased availability of affordable healthcare coverage for employers and their employees.

Current federal legislation that is being considered would not improve the existing healthcare system, but, the Chamber and many other business organizations believe, would jeopardize the parts of the system that currently work. Furthermore, the Chamber believes that the creation of a new government-run insurance plan is a step in the wrong direction. The Chamber has spoken out in opposition to this concept time and again, especially at the state level.

“It is possible in the coming weeks, that Congress may have a legislative proposal on the floor for a vote. This Chamber will be prepared to weigh in on the proposal and to protect the interest of our members by conveying the position of the business community at that time,” stated Cynthia Schneider, Chair of the Corona Chamber’s Legislation Action Committee.

The Chamber is further concerned with a possible proposal to mandate employers to either provide health insurance or pay huge fines or payroll taxes. This “pay or play” mandate is especially bad because employers are also required to pay the majority of employee premiums. Even with some exemptions, this provision will kill many jobs. It is the position of the Chamber that market forces and employer autonomy should determine what benefits employers provide, rather than legislative proposals by Congress.

The Chamber is eager to work with Congress and represent the business community to reform the health care system. Businesses, as providers of healthcare benefits, continue to see health care costs rise far in excess of GDP growth or inflation. The Chamber believes that responsible and constructive healthcare reform is needed and is something that we all need to support. However, reforms that are to be enacted need to improve the healthcare system without jeopardizing those who currently have coverage and not on the backs of business.