The Power of A

How is your association forming partnerships to improve society?

Part of the power of associations and the good they do for society is found in their partnerships with other organizations to create programs to help a needy segment of the population.  ASAE & The Center on January 21 will be providing an opportunity for associations to form these partnerships when it hosts it first Volunteer Fair from 11 AM - 1 PM in the ASAE & The Center Conference Center.

The fair is open to association executives and will provide them with the opportunity to meet with various organizations in order to see if the association can partner in an existing program beneficial to the community.  The benefit is not only to the association, which shows it dedication to a better society, but also to staff and volunteers as it creates an opportunity for team building and leadership training.

Some of the organizations that will be participating include Disney, the American Heart Association, Volunteers of America, Volunteer Alexandria, Meals on Wheels, the Urban Alliance, and more.  The event is free for ASAE & The Center members, and is a collaboration between the GW Network, Nonprofit Programs and the ASAE staff’s Community Outreach Team (COT).

For more information and to register, click here.

Quick Hits

The House and Senate will begin reconciling their health care legislation not through a formal conference, but by amending the two bills they passed last year.  To see a comparison of the two bills, see the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation chart.  The House Democrats have also listed the major differences between the two bills… ASAE & The Center CEO John Graham recently penned an entry for the National Journal’s Under the Influence blog on his submission for the best advocacy campaign of 2009.  Read the entry here.

Recently, Volunteers of America President Charles W. Gould stopped by the ASAE offices to discuss the health care debate and how Volunteers of America is participating in the Power of A message.  Earlier this month, he penned a guest post on an important Volunteers of America health care program.  ASAE will continue its video interviews on this site to bring first-person accounts of how different associations and nonprofits are advancing America.

Quick Hits

Some trade associations dispatch members (subscription) to particpate in town hall meetings… Some Senate Democrats want to push a health care bill from Finance Committee regardless of deals… President holds a working lunch with the Democratic caucus.

1.  The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) scores a modified Health Education Labor and Pension (HELP) Committee health care proposal at $611.4 billion, but the bill would still leave 34 million Americans without insurance.

2.  The plan includes a public option and an employer mandate with a $750-per-employee penalty for the uninsured.

3.  Read the Kennedy/Dodd letter to the committee here.

4.  Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) continues to modify his public plan proposal.

5.  American Medical Association supports “an American Model” of public and private insurance companies.

6.  President Obama held a health care roundtable in Annandale, Virginia yesterday to promote reform legislation.

As many people travel over the July 4^th recess, the travel and hospitality community are working with Congress to help revitalize the nation’s economy.

USTA, the U.S. Travel Association (formerly the Travel Industry Association) is working on numerous fronts to help keep the U.S. tourism industry vibrant in the face of a down economy.  Legislatively, USTA is supporting the Travel Promotion Act of 2009, legislation that establishes a private-government partnership to promote the U.S. as a tourist destination for overseas visitors.  The first step has already been taken with the “Discover America” website to highlight destinations for foreign visitors.  The legislation is currently out of committee in the Senate but consideration has been held up on the floor due to procedural concerns.

USTA is also using new media to promote travel in the U.S.  The “Power of Travel” website was created to centralize statistics and facts about the benefits of tourism to the U.S. economy.  In tandem with this, USTA conducted its “Faces of Travel” contest, where individuals shared their stories of the importance of travel via YouTube.  In its most recent contest, USTA selected Paco Saldaña as their winner; his video is below:

Saldana Video

The American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) is also encouraging tourism by making travel planning easier and cheaper.  Their “Travel Sense” website is a central location for connecting people with their members, as well as providing travel tips and resources.

Is your association involved with travel issues?  If so, share your story with us.

Quick Hits

Members of Congress are also travelling this week - back home to their districts and states.  ASAE encourages its members to take advantage of seeing their members of Congress back home to share with them information on health care, the importance of travel, and other association issues.

Wal-Mart comes out in favor of an employer mandate (see its letter here)… President Obama continues to push health care reform through a White House town hall meeting.  You can find out how to participate and ask a question here… New York Times story on how three-quarters of those who fall into medical bankrupcy had insurance when they filed… Questions by critics on how much the promised pharmaceutical health care reform savings will save.

In an interview with the Associated Press, Maine Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME) outlined her support for a public plan with a trigger option as a possible compromise to the stalemate over inclusion of a public plan in comprehensive health care reform.

The trigger option would mean a government-run insurance company would only come into existence if private insurance companies failed to enact specified reforms. Senator Snowe stated her opposition to a public plan that is immediately created, saying: “If you establish a public option at the forefront that goes head-to-head and competes with the private health insurance market … the public option will have significant price advantages”

However, in the interview she expressed a desire to reform the insurance market. “I don’t think we can entirely depend on the private insurance market to deliver. They haven’t delivered thus far, and that’s why we’re in the predicament we’re in today,” she said.

Also this morning, Politico obtained a Senate Health Education Labor and Pension (HELP) Committee document outlining its proposal for a public plan in its legislation. The proposal would be a weaker version of the House version of the public plan, but more government-oriented than the co-op proposal. Details of the “Community Health Insurance Option” can be found here, but highlights include:

- The public plan would be an offering to the bill’s insurance exchange, and would follow the same rules as private insurers except the federal government would set reserve requirements.

- For the first three months, the government (specifically HHS) would pay the plan’s claims. This would be considered a loan to be repaid by the plan.

- The payment rates paid by the public plan would be no more than the local average of private rates, but could be less.

- There is no requirement that a health care provider participate in the plan.

Quick Hits

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs gives a non-committal answer (subscription) to whether the president is open to taxing employer-provided health care… the Small Business Coalition for Affordable Healthcare releases its first YouTube video… a list of other groups advertising (subscription) over the Congressional recess.

On the same day the White House Council of Economic Advisors warned that any economic turn-around must include addressing health care costs, the health insurance companies’ trade association released a detailed plan of how to reduce the cost of providing health care from their industry.

America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) and five other medical groups sent a letter to the White House yesterday with specific details for the promises made at the White House in the beginning of May to find savings in the health care system.  AHIP proposes the creation of standard online forms for claims submissions, eligibility, claims status, payment, and remittance.  The forms would be universal for all private insurers and use would be mandatory.  Pilot programs for the new system are currently being run in New Jersey and Ohio.

In addition, the insurance industry has pledged to develop a model for personal health records, allowing seamless transition in care when a patient switched hospitals.“The effect throughout the health-care industry would be similar to the effect of ATMs being introduced throughout the banking system,” AHIP wrote in the letter.

While AHIP’s proposals pledged a series of new ways to streamline health care, the other organizations proposed continuing cost savings they had already begun implementing.  The letter was not met with universal regard, however; House Ways and Means ranking member Dave Camp (R-MI-4) requested the Congressional Budget Office score the letter’s cost-saving ideas.

The idea to create a standard on-line form for all health insurance needs would seem to save association and business employees’ time and hassle.

What do you think?  Will this actually create health care savings (in time and money) or is this just a good idea that fails to address the major costs in health care?

Robert Hay
Manager, Public Policy
ASAE