News on Capitol Hill

Last week I attended a conference in Washington DC with nearly 1,000 other health insurance agents from every state in the nation to advocate with our representatives on Capitol Hill for solutions to the Affordable Care Act.  It was a new experience for me.  I currently serve as a board member on the Washington State Association of Health Underwriters.  Replace underwriters with insurance agents to better understand who we are!

Many of the agents live in states with the federal exchange.  Since Washington's Exchange (wahealthplanfinder.org) is actually doing much better than the rest, that issue was not my top concern.  My concern is for the small businesses of Washington -- you that want to treat your employees right but struggle with the increasing costs of premiums and added fees from Obamacare.

I, along with one or more of my fellow agents, met with Cathy McMorris Rodgers, and then aides from the offices of Derek Kilmer, Patty Murray, and David Reichert.  Each visit was quite different depending on the political affiliation of the person.  We presented the situation facing businesses from our perspective.  All our representatives appeared interested in hearing how their constituents were doing with healthcare reform.  I presented the plight of the small business owner.  I emphasized the demands of including all the seasonal workers with over 120 days and the increased burden of including every employee with more than 30 hours a week. 

Here are a few of the bills currently under discussion that we encouraged our representatives to co-sponsor.  We emphasized the burden that healthcare reform is placing on small employers and its contribution to  our nation's current economic uncertainty and limited job growth.  I hope we got their attention.

S 24 and HR 2988 - Forty is Full Time Act.  We may not get them to change to 40 but we pushed for a compromise of at least 35.

S 24 and HR 763, bipartisan legislation to eliminate the new national premium tax that is projected to add an average of $500 in costs to a typical family policy in 2014 and is slated to steadily increase each year.  This is part of the new fees you have already seen.  It's called the HIT tax.  Have you felt the blow?

HR 2995, a bipartisan bill to eliminate the new law's $2000 deductible cap for small businesses.  In the past we have often proposed to you, our small group clients, a large deductible with an HRA or some other means to help employees with the increased deductible while keeping the premiums at a more reasonable rate.  The deductible cap as well as the out-of-pocket max of $6,350 have contributed to the increased premiums with few options.

The experience of being on Capitol Hill was enlightening.  I will continue to advocate for the changes you would like to see.  Thank you for your loyalty to Benefit Partners.  We are working hard to help you on the benefits side so you can accomplish all your goals.