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Message From The President

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ASSOCIATION HEALTH PLANS: TOGETHER, WE CAN MAKE THEM A REALITY

We’ve experienced it in our businesses, our families and every facet of our lives… We can accomplish more together than on our own. It’s been at the heart of so many of the things you’ve come to rely on from the Manufacturer & Business Association (MBA) for so many years and rings as true today as it did more than 100 years ago when the Association was first founded.

Health insurance has remained one of the highest costs of doing business for employers. Companies with fewer than 50 employees are finding increases are becoming unsustainable. Employers have increased their contributions, and employees are now sharing a portion of the cost as ways to cover these increases. Some employers have already made the difficult decision to eliminate health insurance as a benefit altogether. Providing
health insurance as an employee benefit is critical for each employer to reward and retain their employees and to recruit and retain top talent.

The MBA is committed to you, your employees and their families to add to our current discounted employee benefits offerings and once again provide access to quality group health insurance. Since fall 2018, when we met with Pennsylvania’s insurance commissioner and her staff, we have been working to bring association health plans (AHPs) back to the Commonwealth. At the heart of an AHP, we are looking to pull together employers, their employees and their families to “right-size” the health insurance options available to small employers in a similar way larger
employers are able to do to manage their employee benefit costs.

Thanks to the efforts of our Government Affairs team, partner employer groups across the state, legislators on both sides of the aisle and, specifically, Senator Michele Brooks and Representative Valerie Gaydos, bills have been introduced in the PA Senate (SB 235) and House (HB 550), which would allow AHPs in Pennsylvania.

We are at a point where we need your involvement to make this happen! We are not asking for a dime, but strictly your willingness to stay informed. Please see our Join the Coalition ad on the opposite page or visit www.mbausa.org to learn how you can help champion our efforts. Together, we can make AHPs a reality!

John Krahe is the president and chief executive officer of the Manufacturer & Business Association (MBA). The Association, founded in 1905, represents more than 3,000 member companies with approximately 120,000 employees in 54 counties across the Commonwealth. The MBA is dedicated to helping employers face challenges by delivering services that lower the cost of doing business, ease the burden of compliance and increase productivity for its members.