<nobr>Jun 23, 2009</nobr>

ERIC Vice Chairman Testifies on Health Reform

ERIC Vice Chairman Michael Stapley, President and CEO of Deseret Mutual, on June 23 testified on behalf of ERIC before the House Committee on Education and Labor on the "Tri-Committee Draft Proposal for Health Care Reform."

Stapley spoke of ERIC's long-standing interest and support for healthcare reform, including the development in 2007 of ERIC's New Benefits Platform for Life Security, a number of ideas from which have found their way into the health reform proposals now before Congress. He described three basic principles for guiding the healthcare reform effort, most prominently "doing no harm" to the current employment-based system. Stapley then discussed a list of elements ERIC would support in healthcare reform, including an exchange system that adhered to uniform national standards, broad flexibility for employers, payment reform, improvements in transparency and accountability of providers and health plans, and an individual mandate.

Stapley's testimony described ERIC's concerns with reform proposals currently under consideration in Congress, including concerns related to capping the exclusion for employer-provided health care, the creation of a public plan option, employer mandates, and preemption.

A core focus of the question and answer session was the issue of public plans. Stapley was able to make the point, both in his testimony and in the question period, that Medicare is an example of the cost shifting to employers about which employers are concerned and who fear it would be replicated in the public plan option. Stapley also reiterated ERIC's position that any health care reform must reflect national uniformity and the protection that ERISA preemption affords to both employers and their employees.

Questions or comments on the hearing or on health reform should be addressed to Gretchen Young (gyoung@eric.org).

###


Websites:

ERIC Testimony

Back to Previous Page