Health care reform: associations have a lot at stake.

As the debate continues on who should pay what portion for what services (etcetera, etcetera), ASAE is helping members stay up to date on health care reform proposals and the potential impact on associations. A major ASAE effort in this arena was a briefing held in November in Washington, D.C. Jointly sponsored by the Government Affairs and Insurance Education committees, this daylong event featured presentations by association executives, health care providers, benefits consultants, and government representatives. In their discussions, the speakers forecast winners and losers in the reform proposals and continually emphasized the need for associations to stay involved in the debate.

Don Dressler, CAE, made an impassioned plea to his colleagues to help keep association-sponsored health care plans afloat. According to the president of insurance services at the Western Growers Association, Newport Beach, California, "We need to make it clear to Congress that associations have a role in health care reform. . . . |doesn't~ know we have health plans, and we're the thoroughbreds of this whole concept."

William Morneau had a different message. The president of W. F. Morneau and Associates, an employee benefit consulting firm with offices in the United States and Canada, presented statistics from a survey cosponsored last year by his firm and ASAE that painted a difficult future for many association health care plans, particularly small ones.

"Health care reform could make association health care programs obsolete," Morneau commented. Saying that associations may attempt to become part of a purchasing cooperative, he encouraged those who sponsor plans to "find a big partner" or to "think about exiting the market. . . . In the future you must be big to survive," he concluded.

(Survey of Association Member Health Plans is available for purchase from ASAE, [phone].)