Congress is debating proposals designed to encourage better quality and access to health care for all Americans. Dow is working with leaders in this debate to ensure that such legislation is meaningful and compatible with the company's health benefit plans and programs.
Dow provides its employees and retirees with health benefits that are competitive with those of other leading companies and structures these benefits to place the company among the premier employers globally. These benefits address employee needs for health and preventative care, accident and life insurance. Dow provides a comprehensive package of flexible and innovative solutions to encourage employees and retirees to lead healthy lifestyles. Dow contributes, on average, an additional 40¢ per dollar of pay toward the cost of benefits for Dow employees.
Dow is working closely with members of the House and Senate, as well as Administration officials, to ensure that they understand the structure and funding of Dow’s benefit plans and programs. Ultimately, these changes will allow businesses to continue providing well-funded health benefits to their employees, while gaining sufficient flexibility in the use of cash reserves to fuel economic growth.
Dow encourages Congressional action designed to provide flexibility, predictability and support for employers that offer health care programs for their employees and retirees.
- Employer Provided Health Benefits: Dow is opposed to efforts that would compromise the favorable tax treatment of, and ERISA preemption for, employer provided health benefits to employees, retirees, and their dependents. The current deduction for such expenditures should not be eliminated, nor should the exclusion from the beneficiary's income be limited. Efforts to erode ERISA preemption as a way to foster individual state programs would create barriers for multi-state employers to retain generous benefit plans.
- No Mandates on Employers; Universal Coverage: Dow is opposed to efforts that would impose mandates or other requirements on employers to provide particular health care coverage to employees, retirees or dependents. Dow supports universal health insurance coverage, only if accompanied with reforms to improve quality and cost
- Health Care Tort Reform: Dow supports efforts to eliminate incentives for beneficiaries to sue employers for health care coverage (e.g. genetic nondiscrimination liability).
- Prefunding of Retiree Health Costs: Dow supports efforts to expand tax benefits to individuals and employers who set aside funds to pay for future retiree health expenditures.
- Medicare Reform and New Prescription Drug Benefit: Dow supports efforts to strengthen the implementation of the Medicare prescription drug employer subsidy and other Medicare reforms. We have implemented changes to our retiree health plans to take advantage fully of this program. Dow opposes efforts to reduce federal support for Medicare Advantage plans, as that would reduce our flexibility to implement such plans in the future for our retirees.
- Consumer Directed Health Insurance Plan Designs: Dow supports efforts to facilitate employers' use of consumer directed health insurance plan designs, including more flexible rules for health savings accounts (HSAs) and flexible savings accounts (FSAs).
- Health Information Technology and Quality Improvements: Dow supports governmental actions that encourage the use of health information technology disease management, and other tools designed to limit mistakes in health services and improve quality. Additionally, Dow supports the release of service provider quality data by governments (e.g., Medicare and Medicaid) that can be used by our employees and retirees to select better quality health service providers.
- Prevention: Dow supports efforts to facilitate employer provided prevention programs. Dow also supports efforts to strengthen public health efforts in achieving better health for the population through effective prevention initiatives and models
