{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.alexander.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=PressReleases&ContentRecord_id=13662524-e80b-4eca-b235-27ccdf126eab", "Alexander, Risch, Rubio, McConnell Introduce Bill to Protect Health Insurance Plans of Millions of Americans", "2013-11-20", "2013", "2013-11", "Republican", "House", "TN", "Lamar Alexander", "A000360", "www.alexander.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Bill would preserve the ability of small and mid-sized businesses to self-insure, prevent the administration from forcing their employees into exchanges\u00a0\r\n\r\nWASHINGTON, Nov. 20 \u2013 Senators Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), Jim Risch (R-Idaho), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) today introduced a bill that would protect the right of employers to provide insurance to employees through self-insurance plans. Today, 100 million Americans receive health insurance through employers or labor unions that self-insure, meaning they pay employee health costs directly.\r\nMany companies that self-insure as a means of providing insurance also purchase \u201cstop-loss insurance,\u201d which protects them against an outsized medical claim that would cause financial damage. In an effort to force these businesses to stop self-insuring and push more Americans into the Obamacare exchanges, the Obama administration has signaled interest in ending stop-loss insurance as it exists now.\r\nAlexander, the senior Republican on the Senate health committee, said: \u201cAny effort by the Obama administration to change the rules on companies that self-insure will break the president\u2019s promise to millions more hardworking Americans. No matter if they like their employer\u2019s health care plans, many won\u2019t be able to keep them.\u201d\r\n\u201cPresident Obama promised the American people time and time again that if they liked their current health insurance plan they could keep it,\u201d said Risch.\u00a0 \u201cThat promise was false; the proposal greatly changes millions of middle class Americans\u2019 plans. This legislation preserves small employers\u2019 and individuals\u2019 ability to make their own insurance choices, allowing them to keep their important stop loss coverage.\u201d\r\n\u201cFor millions of employees in small and mid-sized businesses, keeping the health insurance they\u2019re happy with means keeping their self-insurance health plans.\u00a0 Unfortunately, the President could end up breaking his promise to these employees by ending these self-insurance plans and forcing these employees to find new ones,\u201d said Rubio.\u00a0 \u201cSmall and mid-sized employers should have the freedom to continue offering their employees the self-insurance health plans they are happy with.\u00a0 That\u2019s all this bill does.\u201d\r\nMcConnell said: \u201cMillions of Americans are living with the consequences of the President\u2019s broken promises on Obamacare. In their zeal to defend their failing bureaucracy, the Obama administration must not break its promises to the millions of Americans who work at businesses that self-insure by preventing them from keeping the coverage they have and like.\u201d\r\nThe Self-Insurance Protection Act (SIPA) ensures that employers are able to continue to provide quality health benefits to their employees through self-insured group health plans.\r\nThe bill is cosponsored by Senators John Boozman (R-Ark.), John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), John Cornyn (R-Texas), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), and Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.).\r\nEmployers offering health insurance to their employees are increasingly choosing to self-insure, meaning they directly pay their employees\u2019 healthcare costs. This is true for all types of employers, including corporations, municipalities, and non-profit organizations. Sixty one percent of the commercial health insurance market is self-insured\u2014a figure that has been growing steadily over three decades.\r\nSelf-insurance provides employers with the flexibility to customize their employee health benefits to best meet the specific needs of their workforce. Self-insurance also helps control costs because employers can more directly manage benefits such as wellness programs that save money and make people healthier.\u00a0\r\nStop-loss insurance is a form of financial reinsurance that protects employers who pay health care costs directly from large claims that would cause financial hardship. The Obama administration has signaled interest in reclassifying this as health insurance, requiring it to meet all the requirements of health insurance policies under federal law, a move that could eliminate this as a tool for mitigating employers\u2019 risk.\r\n# # #", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.alexander.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=PressReleases&ContentRecord_id=13662524-e80b-4eca-b235-27ccdf126eab"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.4749059919267893, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}