Compass
|
AimPoint Pension
|
Loan & Distribution Specialist AimPoint Pension
|
Regional Vice President of Sales The Retirement Plan Company
|
Bates & Company, Inc.
|
Defined Benefit Combo Cash Balance Compliance Consultant Loren D. Stark Company (LDSCO)
|
“BenefitsLink continues to be the most valuable resource we have at the firm.”
-- An attorney subscriber
Lessons for Health Reform from the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (PDF)
Urban Institute Aug. 21, 2009 10 pages. Excerpt: Politically, the program as a model for reform has appeal across the spectrum. Conservatives like the program's reliance on private health plans and market competition. Liberals like the prospect of expanding to everyone the FEHBP's large-employer-style benefits, community rating, and close oversight of insurer pricing. However, it does not seem to be wise simply to open the existing FEHBP to non-federal enrollment nor feasible to precisely replicate the FEHBP and its national approach outside the context of federal employment. FEHBP experience suggests three main lessons for new reforms. First, selection issues can be severe and program altering. It seems very likely that stronger countermeasures will be needed for a new exchange than the FEHBP has as yet deployed. Second, it is challenging to maintain a wide spread of benefit packages for enrollees to choose among. Plausibly, better risk adjustment or other anti-selection mechanisms would assist in achieving this goal. Third, the FEHBP approach of negotiating with health plans and maintaining reserves that can be used to offset unexpected costs in a given year or temper year-to-year premium fluctuations is an alternative to direct public regulation of premiums. |
Please click here to report this link if it is broken (for example, if you see a "404 File Not Found" error message after you click on the linked news item's title). |
An important word about authorship: BenefitsLink® created this link to the news item, but we are not the news item's author (unless expressly shown above). |