PHC4 | Testimony & Comments

Healthcare Policy

Employers and employees continue to struggle with the rising costs of health care coverage. However, efforts to control the underlying costs of care must also take into account the affect on quality and accessibility of health care delivery in Pennsylvania. Balancing cost, quality and accessibility within the health care system remains a challenge for all stakeholders in the process, including government, insurers, providers, purchasers and consumers.

On behalf of purchasers and consumers of health care, the Chamber believes a private health care delivery system must be encouraged as a means to provide all Pennsylvanians with appropriate access to cost-effective, quality health care. As in any business, competition among health insurance companies and health care providers will impact the cost of health care premiums. With real competition, employers and employees should have a greater choice of health plans.

Quite often, new opportunities for a stronger, more effective health care system surface elsewhere. State government should not hinder Pennsylvania's competitive position relative to other regions and should capitalize on emerging concepts whenever possible. In particular, Pennsylvania should support, not restrict, alternative delivery models, including advances in technology that are designed to enhance cost-effective treatment and management of health care.

In order to sustain a prosperous relationship between employers and employees and promote an attractive workforce environment, the Chamber encourages critical improvements to Pennsylvania's business climate in order to spur private sector job creation thereby minimizing individuals' dependence on the Commonwealth's medical assistance (MA) programs. Pennsylvania's MA programs already represent one of the largest components of the Commonwealth's General Fund budget. Any expansion of government assisted programs at the state and federal level should be fiscally viable and sustainable without shifting costs to employers.

On behalf of employers and employees, the Chamber supports the following concepts:

• Best practices for providers that help eliminate excessive and unnecessary costs of care and ensure the delivery of the highest quality of outcomes;
• Quality measures for the health care industry that are based on verifiable clinical standards;
• A cost/benefit analysis of existing mandates (any mandate in which the cost outweighs the benefit should be repealed);
• Utilization of the best available technology as a means to reduce the cost of treatment, improve clinical outcomes;
• Legal reforms based on fairness, common sense and personal responsibility that will allow for a stable and predictable insurance system for providers;
• Wellness programs designed to assist in the prevention of costly medical treatments;
• New options in the marketplace that provide for ongoing and/or greater access to health care coverage, particularly for the smaller employers that are least likely to have the resources to provide employee health care benefits;
• Basic benefit insurance plans which are mostly free of mandates, and;
• Measures, such as tax deductibility, that will create more affordable health insurance options for all employers.

The Chamber opposes:

• Increases in private insurance reimbursements or a tax shift onto employers and commercial payers as a means to replace diminishing MA program revenues;
• State interference in the administration of ERISA and self-insured plans, and;
• The expansion of mandated benefits, unless sufficient evidence exists demonstrating that the benefits of the mandate clearly outweigh its costs.

Approved by the Board of Directors on May 28, 2009