HealthBeat FYI: ERIC Supports Consumer-Driven Solutions for Employer-Based Health and Retirement Plans

June 14, 2007

Over the past year, employment-based health and retirement plans have received a lot of coverage, mostly because a number of major employers are running out of options for funding the benefits they have promised their employees.

The ERISA Industry Committee (ERIC), an association representing America's largest employers, issued a plan yesterday outlining a new approach to the traditional health and retirement benefit structure.

The plan contains several ideas similar to prescriptions made by scholars with the NCPA, including portable private accounts and tax credits for the purchase of health insurance. Unfortunately, ERIC's plan also seems to advocate an individual insurance mandate.

Below are links to several NCPA publications containing more information:

Personal and portable accounts:

Employer-Sponsored, Personal, and Portable Health Insurance http://www.ncpa.org/email/111406--jcgcommentary.pdf

Tax Credits:

Designing Ideal Health Insurance: http://www.ncpa.org/pdfs/livesrisk_24.pdf

Mandatory Health Insurance:

Will Mandatory Health Insurance Work? http://www.ncpa.org/pub/ba/ba569/

NCPA health care experts are available to further explain these revolutionary health care reforms.

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