Washington, D.C. - Congressman Dave Loebsack (IA-02), who served as the Senior Democrat on the Health, Employment, Labor, and Pension (HELP) Subcommittee of the House Education and Workforce Committee, today delivered the following opening remarks at the hearing entitled "Providing Access to Affordable, Flexible Health Plans Through Self-Insurance."

Loebsack's opening statement, as prepared for delivery, is below.

"Good morning. I want to thank Chairman Roe for calling today's hearing and thank all of the witnesses for testifying.

"The Affordable Care Act paves the way for all Americans to have access to quality, affordable health care coverage for the first time.

"While it is unacceptable that technical problems prevented people from signing up for the marketplaces at the outset, there is more than a month of open enrollment left and millions of Americans are signing up for coverage.

"As of last month, approximately 4 million people have enrolled in a marketplace plan and millions more have secured coverage through Medicaid.

"The ACA is also helping strengthen employer-sponsored coverage for the more than 150 million workers and their families who get their health insurance through employment.

"Of the workers who get coverage through their jobs, about three in five work for an employer who self-funds their coverage, which means that they directly assume responsibility for covering the cost of their employees' medical care.

"While the ACA provides employers who self-fund with greater flexibility, it also ensures that workers with this coverage have access to many of the law's important new consumer protections.

"Because of the Affordable Care Act's ban on annual and lifetime limits, workers no longer face financial ruin if they confront a chronic or catastrophic illness.

"Children can stay on their parent's plan until they are 26, including 5,400 young people in my district alone. This means that rather than worrying about whether they can afford adequate coverage at the very early stages of their careers, we are giving America's young people a chance to focus on building a strong future right from the start.

"Now workers have the right to appeal a benefit denial to an independent third party and they have the right to a summary of their benefits and coverage to help them compare costs and understand their health care plan.

"The Affordable Care Act also provides workers with greater freedom as they are no longer tied to their employer for their health care coverage. This newfound freedom gives workers greater flexibility in the labor market: they are free to make career decisions, such as changing jobs or starting their own business, without worrying about how they will continue to get health insurance.

"Employers are also benefiting from the law and saving money through such provisions as the small business tax credit and medical loss ratio. In fact, last year health care costs grew at the slowest rate in 50 years.

"Spending less on health care allows employers to create more jobs. Since the law's enactment, more than eight million new jobs have been added to the economy?and nine out of 10 of those jobs are full-time positions.

"Recent reports have indicated that more employers may be looking to self-insure.

"As part of today's hearing, I expect we will discuss the issues unique to the self-insurance market. I think this is an important conversation.

"While there are many benefits to employers who self-insure, there also can be significant financial risk.

"The recent story about AOL exemplifies the risks involved with self-insuring and re-enforces why employers must be adequately prepared if they face higher than expected health care costs.

"The CEO of AOL recently blamed the high health care costs incurred by two babies for the company's decision to cut contributions to its retirement plan.

"With 5,000 workers, AOL is not what I would consider a small employer and thus was ultimately able to absorb the costs.  They did not have to shift the costs onto employees, and, after a public outcry, they backpedaled their plan to cut retirement benefits. A smaller employer?regardless of whether they had stop-loss coverage?may not have as much flexibility to absorb unexpected costs in a self-funded plan.

"I hope today's conversation will be a constructive one and look forward to the testimony. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I yield back."

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WASHINGTON - Today, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, released a joint report on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)'s highly-invasive surveillance program that monitored employees who contacted Congress and the media with concerns about FDA's medical device approval process.

Grassley's testimony before the Oversight Committee on the report is available here.

In April 2010, the FDA initiated a surveillance program of unprecedented scope to monitor employees in the Center for Devices and Radiological Health.  The program allowed FDA managers to read communications between FDA employees and Congress, the U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC), and their personal attorneys.  The Joint Committee report, entitled "Limitless Surveillance at the FDA: Protecting the Rights of Federal Whistleblowers," found the FDA acted without regard for employees' whistleblower rights, which protect their communications to Congress and OSC.  The joint report also found that FDA conducted the program without adequate guidelines in place and made no effort to limit the scope of the program to exclude protected communications.

The Oversight Committee will hold a hearing on the FDA's surveillance today at 10:00 a.m. in 2154 Rayburn House Office Building.

Key Findings:

•   Insufficient authorization and guidelines. The monitoring was implemented with insufficient written authorization, no policy in place and no legal guidance given to the contractors conducting the monitoring. As a result, FDA captured communications that are protected by law, including communications with Congress, the media, and watchdog groups like Project on Government Oversight.

•    Unlawful capturing of protected communications. Because no formal monitoring policy was in place, FDA managers did not understand the legal limits of employee monitoring. The FDA's surveillance was not lawful, to the extent that it monitored communications with Congress and the Office of Special Counsel. Federal law protects disclosures to OSC and Congress.

•    Lack of explanation for capture of future communications. Instead of looking back at previous communications using available tools, the FDA captured real-time communications of current and future communications. When interviewed, FDA managers and IT professionals failed to explain clearly how the rationale offered to justify the monitoring (investigating a past leak) was consistent with the method used (monitoring current activity).

•    New policies do not offer sufficient whistleblower protections. In September 2013, the FDA issued interim policies that require written authorization prior to initiating employee monitoring. However, the policies do not offer sufficient protection for whistleblowers concerned about retaliation from agency officials.

You can read the complete joint report here.

QUAD CITIES - The Epilepsy Foundation of the Quad Cities will be holding the 2014 Quad Cities Walk for Epilepsy on Saturday, March 22nd at the PepsiCo Center, Augustana College - 1025 30th St., Rock Island, IL from 9:00am to 12:00pm.  This Walk is held to raise awareness and help fund support services for those living with the challenges of epilepsy here in the Quad Cities.

The Walk starts at 9am with FUN RUN races for kids aged 12 and under.  Entertainment featuring emcee Rick Davis from ComedySportz, Magician David Casas, Caricature Artist Leo Kelly, face painting, chair massage, and demonstrations from Quad Cities Canine Assistance Network along with auctions/raffles and information will all be a part of the morning's indoor event. All are welcome to walk and show their support. Those walkers with a minimum $15 pledge will receive a Walk T-shirt.

For more information contact the Epilepsy Foundation at 309.373.0377 or email to efqc@efncil.org.

Register online at:  www.efncil.org

Epilepsy affects 65 million people worldwide.  Epilepsy is the fourth most common neurological disorder in the U.S. after migraine, stroke, and Alzheimer's disease. Its prevalence is greater than autism spectrum disorder, cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's disease combined.  1 in 26 will develop epilepsy at some point in their lifetime:  that translates to over 14,700 individuals in our Quad Cities region.

The Quad City Wind Ensemble's (QCWE) Winter Concert will be performed on Sunday, March 16th at 3:00pm.  The concert will take place in the Allaert Auditorium at the Galvin Fine Arts Center on the St. Ambrose campus.  Admission in $10 for adults, $8 for seniors and FREE for all students through 12th grade.  See attached poster for details.

The QCWE was recently selected as performers at the Iowa Bandmasters Association (IBA) 2014 Conference in May.  The conference will take place May 15-17 at the Downtown Marriott in Des Moines, Iowa.

The IBA includes a membership of over 1,000, most of whom are directors of school bands.  It is one of the largest and most active of all state bandmaster organizations in the country.  Its driving force has kept good bands and good band music thriving in communities of all sizes through the state of Iowa.

The QCWE was founded in 1987 by Dr. Charles B. DCamp of St. Ambrose University, and has become one of the finest adult bands in the nation. In 2012 the QCWE was the Community Division winner of The American Prize in Band/Wind Ensemble Performance.  For additional information, please visit www.qcwindensemble.org, or http://www.facebook.com/qcwindensemble