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From Your President, Jean Russell

Senate President Therese Murray (D-Plymouth) was joined today by Senator Richard Moore (Senate Chair of the Joint Committee on Health Care Financing) and their colleages at Umass Medical School in Worcester to announce major health care legislation - making Massachusetts the first state to impose a ban on the pharmaceutical marketing of gifts. The Senate bill, An Act to Promote Cost Containment, Transparency and Efficiency in the Delivery of Quality Health Care, addresses many of the concerns escalating the costs to our health care system. There will be a public hearing on this bill scheduled March 12, 2008.

NAHU's annual Capital Conference (CAP) was held February 3rd thru the 6th, and attended by Board President, Jean Russell, Legislative Chair, Julie Jennings, Board Member, Marie Chalmers, MassAHU Lobbyist, Dan Foley and Association Manager, Kate Bardsley. Several presentations and break out sessions were extremely informative. Visits to our state's legislative aides on Capital Hill provided us an opportunity to speak in detail and provide our association's positions on these three specific issues:

SCHIP:
We supported this reauthorization with premium assistance

simplifying the premium subsidy process for employer-sponsored coverage to keep families covered together
keeping SCHIP a program for truly low income children

Mental Health Parity:
We support the Senate's version S-588

allowing health plans and employers to have flexibility in determining mental health coverage, provided that the benefits are equal to medical/surgical benefits
bi-partisan, reasonable compromise on the issue

Long Term Care:
We supported

making LTC insurance available through cafeteria plans
an above the line tax deduction for LTC premiums
Federal LTC purchasing incentives that will reduce Medicaid spending.

From Jean Russell, MassAHU Board President:
Massachusetts health care reform was an excellent way to start the process of insuring the uninsured in our state. We all would like to see this reform succeed, but there are several key components which are being overlooked. We hear on a daily basis how much cost is impacting health insurance coverage and the increases are challenging all involved. What are driving up the medical care cost factors? - health care costs are not expensive because of insurance. Approximately 85% of the cost of a policy is the result of medical claims submitted by the policy holder. How do we get a handle on this? The following are three indicators of responsible reform taken from NAHU's Healthy Access Plan

Cost Containment
Does it constrain rapidly rising medical costs? And eliminate Cost Shifting? Cost-shifting is a "hidden tax" imposed when providers of medical care adjust the prices they charge to private insurance companies in order to offset losses from partial or non-payers. These losses are primarily attributable to uncompensated care costs and declining reimbursements from Medicare and Medicaid, and have a significant impact on private health insurance premiums.

Access for All
Does it guarantee that every America has access to health care coverage? Does it empower Americans to find and choose the health care coverage that best fits their unique needs? Does it enable health care coverage to evolve with changes to the country's population, their needs and expectations?

Affordability and Financial Access
Can the country afford the plan? Can the people afford the plan

As health insurance professionals, we understand what the factors are that directly drive up insurance claims costs and as a result premiums. Please take a minute to click on the above Health Access Plan for more information and details.

How to Produce Better Health Care Results for the Citizens of Massachusetts
by Julie Jennings, Legislative Chair and Regional Legislative Rep