01/06/2010
Letter from Jonathan Hensley
With the start of the new year comes a new phase in the health care reform
debate. With the Christmas Eve passage of the Senate health bill, Congress must
now work together to come up with a compromise bill acceptable to both the House
and Senate. The Democrats' goal is to have a final bill on the President's desk
prior to his yet-to-be-scheduled State of the Union address which typically is
held each year in late January. Republicans so far have made clear they aren't
supporting the bill.
This new phase is sure to draw continued media
coverage so it's reasonable to expect that many of your own conversations will
repeatedly turn to this topic. After all, we're often considered the "experts"
by friends and family whenever the topic of health care reform comes up — simply
because we work in the health care industry.
So, should the conversation
turn toward heath care reform, here are a few messages about Regence's position
on reform:
- First and foremost, it's important to know that Regence has long supported
efforts to fix our nation's broken health care system. Health care reform is
vital to the well-being of Americans and to our economy.
- We strongly support many of the reforms currently being considered, such
as comprehensive insurance reforms, bringing everyone into the system through
an individual responsibility requirement, subsidies to help make coverage
affordable and a focus on wellness and prevention.
- Our biggest concern is that the bills before Congress focus more on
expanding coverage than controlling costs. While we will all have to share the
cost of extending coverage, we're especially concerned that a $70 billion
premium tax in the Senate bill will increase costs for families and employers
at a time when they are already struggling with rising health care
costs.
- Even though Regence is nonprofit, we pay state and federal taxes — nearly
$84 million companywide in 2008. As a nonprofit health plan, our razor thin
margins simply leave no room to absorb new taxes and our more than one million
members in Washington could feel the impact.
What's Regence doing? What can you
do?
Regence's Public Policy group is aggressively reaching out to
policymakers concerning the $70 billion premium tax. I'm asking you to weigh in
too. As agents and brokers for one of the largest nonprofit health insurers in
Washington, you understand the important role that health plans play in ensuring
access to quality, affordable coverage. With a couple of clicks, you can share
your reform concerns with your members of Congress via the Issues & Action Center on regence.com. Or contact their offices directly.
We shouldn't confuse
coverage with reform. Access to a broken system still leaves us with
unsustainable costs. To truly fix what's broken with the system — access and
affordability — reforms must focus on lowering costs.
Thank you for all
you do for members and best wishes for a healthy and happy start to 2010.
M. Jonathan
Hensley, President
Regence BlueShield
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