CalPERS CEO Lauds Benefits of Health Reform

Friday, December 10, 2010

SACRAMENTO, CA - Anne Stausboll, Chief Executive Officer of the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) today sent a letter to U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius affirming the pension fund’s success in implementing aspects of national health care reform measures. In her letter, Stausboll told Sebelius that CalPERS has supported the reforms under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act from its inception and believes the measures will dramatically shape the future of health care in the nation.
“Many health care elements we have championed are now reality,” she said, “Such as guaranteed issue policies; eliminating co-pays for preventive services; bans on pre-existing conditions; stabilizing health premiums; supporting innovative delivery system reforms; and patient protection against medical bankruptcies are now major components of health care reform. “We believe that key elements of national health care reform represent a fundamental and positive shift in the way health care will be purchased and delivered in the United States.”
Stausboll shared some details of CalPERS implementation successes. They included:
Adding 27,000 young adults to CalPERS health plans under the provision that allows the extension of dependent coverage to adult children up to age 26 - at a less than 1% premium increase - and ensuring CalPERS health plan participants were well-informed of the provision;
Removing lifetime dollar value limits on health plan benefits from the few remaining CalPERS plans that had them; and
Using the reimbursement of approximately $200 million under the Early Retiree Reinsurance Program - based on more than 115,000 early retirees and their families - to help reduce premium increases by more than 3 percent for our non-Medicare health plans.
Stausboll ended, “We thank you for expeditiously implementing important health care reform provisions and we are committed to being a collaborative partner in ensuring the smooth and successful implementation in the months and years ahead.”
A copy of the letter can be found under National Health Care Reform on the CalPERS Responds website at http://www.calpersresponds.com.
CalPERS is the largest purchaser of public employee health benefits in California, and the second largest public purchaser in the nation after the federal government. CalPERS provides health benefits to more than 1.3 million State and public agency active and retired members and their families at an annual cost of $6.1 billion. 
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