Health Care Reform Update
Congress recently passed two sweeping health care bills that will affect health plans across the country, including the DGA-Producer Health Plan.
The provisions contained in the first bill, had the bill not been amended, would have had a more immediate effect on our health plan. A number of concerns were resolved by the second bill. For example, there has been much talk about the 40% excise tax on high value health plans. It is likely that this tax will affect our plan. Under the first bill, health plans would have been subject to the tax beginning in 2013. The second bill pushed the effective date back to 2018.
While it is certain that changes are coming to the Health Plan, we don’t yet know the exact nature of those changes. It remains unclear how certain aspects of this legislation will apply to multi-employer health plans such as ours. These and other issues must be resolved before we can fully communicate how this legislation will reshape our plan.
Given what we do know, the changes enacted by this legislation can be broken down into three categories:
- Changes that will not affect the DGA-Producer Health Plan. Certain aspects of the legislation will have no direct effect on our Health Plan. For example, the legislation prevents health plans from denying coverage based on pre-existing conditions. The DGA-Producer Health Plan has never had a pre-existing condition clause.
- Changes that will have an almost immediate effect on the DGA-Producer Health Plan. Certain aspects of the legislation go into effect almost immediately, requiring the Health Plan to make changes by next year. For example, the legislation mandates that dependent children be eligible for health coverage under their parents’ plan up to age 26, regardless of whether or not the dependent child is enrolled as a full-time student. All of the entertainment industry health plans, including our plan, currently allow for coverage of a dependent child up to age 23, contingent on their being enrolled as a full-time student.
- Changes that will affect the DGA-Producer Health Plan over time. Some of the most significant changes enacted by this legislation will not go into effect for several years. As we pointed out, we expect the excise tax on high value health plans to eventually affect the Health Plan.
The Health Plan’s Board of Trustees and office staff are continuing to diligently monitor the progress of health care reform legislation and determine how it will affect our plan. In the coming weeks and months, as we learn more about the changes that will be coming to the Health Plan, we will be notifying you via updates here on www.dgaplans.org as well as in our Spotlight on Benefits newsletter.
We would like to stress that, while this legislation will mandate certain changes to the shape and scope of our Health Plan, one thing has not, and will not, change: our commitment to providing all of our participants and their families with the best health care benefits available.