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 Asuris Northwest Health's position on reform:
- First and foremost, it's important to know that Asuris 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 Asuris is nonprofit, we and our parent company — Regence — pay state and federal taxes. Nearly $84 million in 2008 alone. As a nonprofit health plan, our razor thin margins simply leave no room to absorb new taxes and our 40,000 Asuris members could feel the impact.
What's Asuris doing? What can you do?
Our 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 the subsidiary of one of the largest affiliations of health care plans in the region, you understand the important role that health plans play in ensuring access to quality, affordable coverage. Please share your reform concerns with your members of Congress. It's easy via Congress.org.
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
Asuris Northwest Health
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