The Honorable John Thune
511 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
The Honorable Tom Carper
513 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
The Honorable Diane Black
1131 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
The Honorable Earl Blumenauer
1111 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Senators Thune and Carper, and Representatives Black and Blumenauer,
On behalf of The ERISA Industry Committee (ERIC), thank you for introducing the Chronic Disease Management Act of 2018. ERIC strongly supports your bill to transform Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) into health benefit vehicles with vast potential for health improvement and savings. This legislation would significantly improve HSAs, making them a more versatile and effective tool for employees and plan sponsors.
ERIC is the only national association that advocates exclusively for large employers on health, retirement, and compensation public policies at the federal, state, and local levels. We advocate for policies that empower employers to offer quality benefits to working families, and help control the costs of health insurance and health care services. Consumer-driven health options are vital for ERIC members and their employees. HSAs and high- deductible health plans (HDHPs) are important tools, but are in need of updates since they were first implemented in 2003. This legislation takes a major step toward bringing HSAs and HDHPs into the most up-to-date best practices and standards of care.
By allowing plan sponsors to cover a limited but critical set of medical needs prior to the patient hitting their plan deductible, this bill will greatly improve the ability of employers to keep beneficiaries healthy and to rein in costs. The legislation will allow plan sponsors to integrate value-driven insurance design into HSAs and HDHPs, while maintaining the beneficiary shared responsibility that HDHPs are built upon.
ERIC strongly supports this legislation, and urges swift passage of the bill in the House and Senate. When an omnibus spending bill or long-term continuing resolution are developed, this bill should be included.
Sincerely,
James Gelfand
Senior Vice President, Health Policy