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NAHU Spotlight on Position Papers
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NAHU Spotlight
on Position Papers
Earlier this fall, NAHU formally adopted its new overarching position paper: Access, Choice, and Affordability. This paper serves as a fundamental basis for NAHU’s role in the healthcare system, the issues impacting healthcare and health insurance, and our vision for the future of the market. It also guides NAHU’s legislative strategy and formal comments to regulations. The process for generating this paper, and other position papers adopted by the association, is governed by a formal policy review policy, which has been in place since 2000 and was recently updated this past May. The process calls for the Legislative Council’s task forces and working groups to submit recommendations for policy documents reflective of our membership’s views, which then undergo an extensive review and series of revisions by the council before ultimately being voted on to be recommended for the Board of Trustee’s consideration. The Access, Choice, and Affordability paper underwent an extensive review beginning this spring to replace An American Solution, which was developed in 2010 following the passage of the ACA. In September, the council voted to accept the updated paper and advanced it to the Board of Trustees, which unanimously voted to adopt it on September 21.
Access, Choice, and Affordability
NAHU’s overarching position paper, Access, Choice, and Affordability, was updated and formally adopted this September. This document guides our overall legislative and regulatory strategy by focusing on three core principles that we believe policy makers should address. It advocates that the association believes that the healthcare system should be accessible, it should provide consumers with choice in coverage options and providers, and it should focus on containing cost burdens to make coverage affordable to all Americans. As part of access, we advocate for the role of professional health insurance agents, brokers, and consultants to assist consumers in purchasing healthcare, preserving the employer-based system, and stable individual marketplaces and Medicare programs. We advocate for greater choice in the healthcare system, from plan design to purchasing, as well as adequate flexibility for states and markets to offer appropriate products. Finally, we believe that affordability is the key to the success of health reform and policy makers need to address the fundamental issues related to the cost of medical care, and we advocate for payment reform, wellness initiatives and behavioral changes, lowering the tax burden, and ensuring the long-term financial viability of programs.
Click here to read the paper.
Medicare
NAHU’s Medicare position paper, updated and adopted in June 2015, notes the important role of the agent for Medicare beneficiaries to enroll in the most appropriate coverage for their needs. We advocate that policymakers should ensure that the program is financially stable, serves its beneficiaries efficiently, and provides consumers with dynamic health coverage choices. We advocate for ensuring that Medicare continues to provide adequate first-dollar coverage options (including Medicare Advantage), adequate time for seniors to make appropriate choices in their coverage and be able to make changes if necessary (which include fixes in the open enrollment period), allowing seniors time to adjust to Medicare and not face lifetime penalties (including allowing COBRA to be counted as creditable coverage), and ensuring that consumers have adequate access to agents and brokers to advise them on these important decisions. Finally, we encourage policy makers to ensure the long-term financial sustainability of the program and that Medicare effectively meets the needs of our senior population.
Click here to read the paper.
Employer Mandate
The Employer Shared Responsibility Position Paper, updated and adopted in June 2015, explains our position in opposing employer mandates in the healthcare system. We believe that the existing employer-based system provides adequate voluntary market-based incentives for employers to provide coverage and we feel that mandates hurt American workers and health insurance coverage by decreasing jobs and economic growth, and do little to make coverage more affordable. NAHU is especially critical of the ACA’s employer mandate for its administrative complexity and burden that it has added to employers, including the taxes, reporting requirements, and plan design requirements for cost sharing and minimum value. Not only are many employees not helped by the presence of a mandate, as they may get coverage through their spouse or another program and don’t require their employer’s plan, but many are also harmed as the mandates take away choice in plan options and reduce job opportunities. Further, NAHU opposes any government-sponsored plan to provide coverage that could more adequately be provided by the private market. We encourage the development of policies that will continue to allow both employers and individuals to choose the benefits that are most appropriate for them on an individual basis, and oppose any measures that would allow the government to dictate how and when health insurance should be provided by employers.
Click here to read the paper.
Healthcare Cost Drivers
The Healthcare Cost Drivers White Paper, updated and adopted in June 2015, identifies that one of the major issues impacting healthcare is the cost of care, which in turn drives up the cost of health insurance. The rate of healthcare inflation is rapidly outpacing that of general inflation and making the cost of care and insurance more difficult for consumers. This paper notes that the drivers to increased cost include a rapidly aging population, which will result in Medicare and Medicaid costs to nearly double by 2025, an increase in pharmaceutical costs, the introduction of new technologies and biologics, behavioral and lifestyle choices with as much as 70% of healthcare costs attributable to individual behaviors such as smoking, alcohol abuse, and obesity, system inefficiencies, medical malpractice, cost-shifting, increased utilization, and government regulation. To address these issues, NAHU recommends that policy makers increase both cost and quality transparency of healthcare for consumers, institute payment reform and move increasingly towards value-based design models, utilize consumer-directed health insurance products, like Health Savings Accounts, Health Reimbursement Arrangements, and High Value Health Plans (HVHPs), improve choice and flexibility, promote meaningful wellness initiatives, and adopt medical liability reform.
Click here to read the paper.
Long-Term Care NAHU’s Long-Term Care (LTC) working group is in the process of revising its white paper, recently adopted in June 2015, which addresses the many issues facing the LTC system. The paper finds that many Americans incorrectly believe they are already covered under their private health insurance or Medicare, when neither is true. The paper specifically lists three policy recommendations: protecting Medicare for the truly needy, allowing tax-free withdrawals from retirement plans to purchase LTC insurance, and making LTC insurance be included with other benefits that can be purchased through IRS Section 125. NAHU encourages the use of LTC partnership programs, closing loopholes to access Medicaid, and encouraging the use of reverse mortgages as ways to help preserve Medicaid as more consumers will be adequately prepare for their own needs and will reduce the reliance on Medicaid. We also advocate for early withdrawals from retirement accounts to be exempt from taxes and the early withdrawal penalty if the funds are used to purchase LTC insurance. Finally, we believe that LTC insurance should be added to Section 125 plans, which would send a signal to employees about the importance of the benefit while the pre-tax treatment makes the product more affordable. For more information on the upcoming revisions on the LTC paper, please click here.
Click here to read the one-page executive summary.
Privacy and Security
The white paper on Privacy and Security of Medical, Financial and Personal Information, adopted in April 2015, addresses the privacy and security of personal information and the myriad of laws and regulations in which insurance brokers are subject to protect information, including HIPAA, HIPAA-HITECH, and state confidentiality and privacy laws. This paper specifies the expectations for consumers and those obtaining records. We believe that consumers have a right to expect that entities with access to their medical, financial, personal and other confidential records will take steps and exercise reasonable care to protect them and we believe that any entity or person obtaining such records should be expected to take reasonable measures to secure this important information. We believe that individuals should have an expectation of confidentiality with respect to their personal health information and records and that individuals have specific rights with respect to their medical records. We also believe that confidentiality of financial information should be regarded with the same diligence as medical records.
Click here to read the paper.
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National Association of Health Underwriters 1212 New York Ave NW, Ste 1100, Washington, DC 20005
Ph. 202.552.5060 Fax 202.747.6820 www.nahu.org
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