Removing the tax deductions on employer health plans is crazy (To tax or not to tax. How will we make coverage more affordable by raising the price? The individual tax credit is not a solution. We need to maintain group plans. These spread the risk among a group of similar employees, offer multiple plan choices, and here in Texas there are mandates to make sure people get covered and renewals are justified. In Texas, the insurance carriers are mandated to require a minimum employee participation level and employer cost contribution. If we want to fix "job lock" then let's work with the carriers on a solution such as transfer of creditable coverage to individual plans.
I do not agree with the Senate Finance Committee statement that the tax-free status encourages "Cadillac plans" and over-use. They think employers have all this money to throw at expensive, low deductible, co-pay filled plans. Not true! All the employers that I work with take a hard look at their plan designs to balance utilization and cost issues.
Proper partners
I enjoyed the article The right retirement partners can make all the difference. I value the deep relationships I have with service providers. By narrowing them down to a well-researched few, I learn all facets of how they work. We should go the extra mile to do site visits to TPAs, record-keepers and mutual fund offices to meet all of the people we will interface with - analysts, plan document writers and the people manning the call centers. It is also important to have providers that can handle those special "niche" plans.
From the cover story, Make it or Break it Time, I'm glad we have our representatives working the halls in D.C. We need to band together as a profession and show our true worth.
Congress needs to understand what we bring to the table as benefit advisers - we are not just "brokers" looking for a sale. I am glad that our representatives are looking at the details in these bills, especially the definitions of the terms used. Little things such as the definition of "small group" can make a huge difference in outcomes.
We also need to work to protect Americans' freedom of choice. A government-run plan would have an unfair advantage and would soon become our only option. We need to keep market forces at work to give people options for their health care.
Focus on the findings
Finally, I would like to see more scientific data on the link between vision care and overall health, An Eye for Worker Health. I'm a big believer that the body is an interconnected system. But we need more of a reason to show the link with vision other than "it will provide another line of business with your client." The dental carriers and the ADA did a great job showing the links of periodontal disease to overall health with scientific data on low fetal birth weight, coronary disease, arterial plaque biopsies, and other links. We need this data for vision plans as well. Also, we as advisers need to point out that many fully-insured medical plans cover a vision exam and offer free vision discount plans to enrolled health plan members.
Bryant, founder SB&K Benefits, can be reached at toddb@sbkbenefits.com.
