Healthcare at the Statehouse

Each year, employers that offer employee healthcare plans huddle with their healthcare plan administrators or insurers to select a plan for the upcoming year. As the costs in healthcare increase even status quo plans can come with unexpected additional cost and plan sponsors/employers must determine how to share the costs of plans between employee and employer or adjust the plan offerings.

Employer sponsored plans provide the money to pay insurers to administer plans, and to pay healthcare providers for their services. In the case of prescription pharmaceutical benefits, the insurers will hire the services of Pharmaceutical Benefits Managers (PBMs). These entities, representing all the covered employees across the breadth of the employer plans of the insurers, then use that market power to negotiate lower prices on drugs from pharmaceutical manufacturers and also manage the reimbursement of pharmacies that supply pharmaceuticals to covered employees. 

Beyond inflationary costs, public policy at the state and federal levels can also influence the costs of plans. The ABI public policy team gets involved at the Iowa Statehouse to make sure public policy does not drive up the cost of sponsoring plans for employers and the cost of care for employees.

During the 2022 legislative session pharmacies in Iowa asked for legislation they said was needed to financially assist independent rural pharmacies. ABI was neutral on the legislation upon its introduction and opposed the bill as the costs to employers and covered employees became known. ABI then endorsed the bill as sections of the bill supporting independent local pharmacies were preserved and provisions that increased costs for employers, and their employees, were eliminated.

This session, bills that specifically address pharmacies in Iowa are back, as well as bills that address all participants in healthcare delivery, including drug manufacturers, plan administrators, doctors, hospitals, pharmacies, and others.

ABI believes comprehensive legislation that reviews the whole of healthcare delivery is preferable to public policy that addresses only a narrow spectrum of healthcare. The ABI public policy team will review all healthcare policy that comes before the legislature guided by our adopted policy to ensure that employers can offer quality healthcare plans to their employees at costs that can be maintained.