Justice Department lawyers made headlines earlier this week when they informed a federal appeals court that the Trump Administration agrees with a lower court decision that would overturn the Affordable Care Act in its entirety. The announcement has no immediate effect, but highlights the fact that the U.S. health care landscape is complicated and subject to change. Ultimately, federal courts will decide the fate of the ACA.
“Fortunately, NAIFA is always working for our members and their clients and will be closely involved as the government determines the future of the ACA,” said NAIFA CEO Kevin Mayeux.
NAIFA is not a party to this lawsuit or any others pertaining to the ACA, but remains in the advocacy forefront on the health care issue. NAIFA’s leadership and government relations team are closely engaged with regulators and Congress, working to advance the interests of advisors and the consumers who rely on them to make sense of their health care options.
For example, NAIFA is participating in an invitation-only Agent and Broker Roundtable hosted by the Department of Health and Human Services’ Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on April 5. NAIFA continues to promote principles it developed that should be incorporated into a workable solution to our nation’s health care problems. The principles include:
- Preserving the employer-based health care insurance system
- Permitting a wide range of plan types, including low-cost basic-benefit policies
- Providing tax incentives and deductibility of premiums
- Expanding wellness and disease prevention programs
- Encouraging cost sharing and cost transparency
- Allowing pre-existing condition coverage with reasonable limitations
- Permitting greater flexibility in setting health insurance rates
- Funding state high-risk pools
- Supporting Medicare Advantage plans
Details on each of these principles and others are provided in the NAIFA publication, “Rx for Health Care.”
NAIFA’s advocacy throughout the legislative and regulatory life of the ACA has protected advisors and their clients from various harmful proposals. It helped ensure that the ACA preserved the crucial role of agents and advisors in the health care system. It opposed efforts to fund the ACA by imposing taxes on life insurance products and to allow Health and Human Services to set agent commissions.
Other NAIFA victories after the ACA was enacted from came from working with regulators and law makers to ensure that small group health markets remain defined as 1-50 employees rather than 1-100, as the ACA would have required (PACE Act); provide ACA subsidies for consumers enrolling directly in health plans, outside of the government marketplaces; and delay implementation of the “Cadillac tax” on certain health policies.
“NAIFA will continue to support advisors and their clients as the courts, Congress, and the administration shape the future of health care in the United States,” Mayeux said. “As always, advisors can count on NAIFA to keep them abreast of how changes could affect their practices and their clients and to advocate on behalf of our principles to ensure a robust, effective health care system for everyone.”
