Last year, members of the Self-Insurance Institute of America formed the Self-Insurance Defense Coalition (SIDC) to facilitate information related to legislative developments affecting self-insured entities. The coalition moved quickly to foster the introduction of HR 3462/SB 1735 known as the Self-Insurance Protection Act. This legislation clarifies existing law to ensure that federal regulators cannot re-define stop-loss insurance as traditional health insurance, since this designation would effectively force self-insured entities that retain stop-loss insurance to discontinue their health plans.
Supporters of the legislation, introduced by Rep. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN), emphasize that today, some 60 percent of consumers receiving health care coverage in the private sector are covered by self-insured plans which will become much more limited if regulators are permitted to limit access to stop-loss coverage or re-define it as health insurance.
We will provide updates in future newsletters as we continue to work with our colleagues in support of this legislation and self-insurance.
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In cooperation with NAEBA