Self-Insurance Institute of America
CIT talks to Mike Ferguson of the Self-Insurance Institute of America to see what the trade association is up to, and how its initiatives are progressing
When was the SIIA formed and what were the reasons behind it?
The association was incorporated in 1981 to represent the business interest of companies involved in the nascent self-insurance industry, prompted by the passage of the US Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) in 1974. At that point in time, it was clear that the industry had significant growth opportunity and having a trade association would help facilitate this growth by bringing companies together and pushing back against harmful legislative/regulatory developments.
What are the most important focuses for the SIIA?
Generally speaking, the SIIA is focused on defending against legislative/regulatory threats at both the federal and state that would make it more difficult for employers to utilise self-insurance programmes, including captive insurance. We also play an important role in educating the general business community about self-insurance solutions that are available in the marketplace. Other areas of focus include delivering high quality educational content and informational resources to those already involved in the self-insurance/alternative transfer marketplace and providing unique networking opportunities.
How does the SIIA’s grassroots initiative work?
We proactively connect our association members with members of Congress in Washington DC and/or in their districts. SIIA coordinates the meeting logistics and provides talking points. This initiative has supported the association’s broader government relations programme by reminding policy-makers that they have real constituents who are involved in the self-insurance/alternative risk transfer marketplace. To my knowledge, this effort is not replicated anywhere else within our industry.
What kind of relationship does the SIIA have with officials such as the NAIC? Are they supportive of ideas and progression?
In most cases, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) promotes regulatory approaches that would make it more difficult for employers to utilise self-insurance solutions so their agenda mostly conflicts with that of SIIA. In this regard, we do our best to help to funnel to concerns of members as part of formal and informal communications to NAIC officials.
The alternative risk transfer committee recently launched a stop-loss captive campaign. How has it been received?
We are still in the early stages, but I believe the industry will find it useful to have a central point of education and information about these innovative alternative risk transfer programmes.
Those in the captive world have clearly started to recognise that the healthcare marketplace in the US dwarfs the property and casualty marketplace, so there is an obvious interest to getting involved in the space and stop-loss captive programmes provide such opportunity. And since self-insured group health plans are the building blocks for such programmes, SIIA is the perfect industry resource.
Our lobbying activities related to stop-loss insurance regulations compliments the educational value proposition, because if employers are not able to access stop-loss insurance, this business model simply does not work.
The SIIA’s board of directors has prioritised preserving the current employer-based healthcare system. How has legislation progressed?
This is really more of an ongoing focus as this is not legislation currently pending that would end the employment-based healthcare system, but there are powerful interest groups that would like to see the current employment-based healthcare system dismantled—either in favour of an individual-based system or single-payer system. If the healthcare insurance markets start to implode as the US Affordable Care Act is fully implemented, these pressures could increase.
What does the SIIA have planned for the future?
We plan to expand our government relations team further, with a specific focus on developing more robust advocacy capabilities at the state level. The association also intends to become more of a financial political player in Washington DC through the continued growth of its political action committee. We’ll be announcing these and other initiatives at its upcoming National Conference & Expo, scheduled for October 21-23 2013. Details can be accessed online at www.sii.org.
