WASHINGTON–Provisions within the Affordable Care Act are both boosting the economy and helping millions of Americans receive affordable, quality health care, but adequate oversight is needed for "self-funded" insurance plans, witnesses testified at a Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions Subcommittee hearing today.

"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," said Rep. Dave Loebsack (D-IA), a senior Democrat on the subcommittee. "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."

The landmark health care law protects workers in self-insured plans in a variety of ways. It allows, for example, parents to keep their children on their coverage until the age of 26; bans annual and lifetime limits on coverage so that battling a major chronic or catastrophic disease won't lead to bankruptcy; and provides the right to an external review of a benefit denial and the right to a summary of benefits and coverage, which helps ensure insurance decisions are made fairly and empowers those comparing plan options.

Furthermore, the economy has improved since the ACA was enacted. More than 8 million new jobs have been added, and the law is reducing job lock. With increased flexibility in the labor market, workers can make career decisions, such as changing jobs or starting their own business, without worrying about their health insurance coverage.

Employers may benefit from self-funding their health insurance plans. However, there are risks to such insurance models that require sufficient governmental oversight. For example, protections may be needed to ensure that employers don't repeatedly move back and forth between the fully insured and self-insured markets in a way that could raise costs and provide instability for workers. In addition, oversight of the insurance policies that businesses use to protect against occasionally higher costs in self-insured plans, called stop-loss insurance, will help ensure that this market is stable, especially for smaller employers and their employees.

"Ultimately, self-funding will likely lower costs for some employers who choose this path. But this trend will dramatically increase costs for other employers and their employees who remain in the insured market because self-funding is not a viable alternative," said Maura D. Calsyn, Director of Health Policy at the Center for American Progress. "We must acknowledge this and other trade-offs as part of the discussion about self-funding and affordability. Oversight and regulation of stop-loss insurance, which is extremely limited today, will help stabilize the small-group market and protect both employers and employees."

For more information on the hearing, click here.

For more information on the benefits and consumer protections of the Affordable Care Act, click here.

Committee on Education and the Workforce Democrats

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A Program of the Cancer Support Community and LIVESTRONG™

Davenport, Iowa (February 2014) - Gilda's Club will be offering Cancer Transitions™ in four locations. Cancer Transitions is a free 2 hour, six-week workshop designed to help cancer survivors make the transition from active treatment to post-treatment care. Expert panelists including an oncology nurse navigator, nutritionist and physical therapist; will discuss exercise tailored to each participant's abilities, training in relaxation and stress management and tips for nutritious eating. Cancer Transitions will answer many of your questions about cancer survivorship post-cancer treatment.

Dates and Locations:

March 20th in Muscatine at Muscatine Community Y, Thursdays from 1-3 p.m.

March 25th in Moline (Location TBD) Tuesdays from 1:30-3:30 p.m.

March 26th in Davenport at Gilda's Club , Wednesdays from 2:30-4:30

April 3rd in Geneseo at Hammond Henry Hospital, Thursdays from 6-8 p.m.

For more details and registration, contact Melissa at (563)-326-7504 or toll free at (877)-926-7504 or by email at melissa@gildasclubqc.org

WASHINGTON - Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa is asking the Obama Administration to explain a new requirement that employers certify that they did not reduce their workforce to become eligible for a delay in complying with Obamacare.

"If the Obama Administration is so certain that PPACA (Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act) will not lead to a reduction in employment, it begs the question: What is the point of the certification process?," Grassley wrote in a letter to Treasury Secretary Jack Lew and IRS Commissioner John Koskinen.  "The requested information is completely unnecessary, unless the Administration believes the employer mandate is so harmful to businesses that they would rather reduce their workforce than comply.

"The regulation appears to be no more than political theatre, designed to provide the Administration with an unverifiable talking point that employers did not lay off workers in order to avoid complying with PPACA. If the Administration believes, as I do, that the employer mandate will cost jobs, the responsible thing to do would be to ask Congress to repeal this provision."

The health care law requires employers to provide insurance to their workers or pay a penalty.  The Obama Administration has imposed several delays of the mandate, most recently announcing that employers with 50 to 99 full-time employees will be exempt from the employer mandate until January 2016.  To be eligible for the delay, an employer must certify that it has between 50 and 99 employees, and that it has not reduced its workforce to fall into that category.  Grassley believes the certification appears pointless and unverifiable.

The text of Grassley's letter is available here.

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Shares Tips for Those Who Suspect They
May Have a Drinking Problem

College students with symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) drink more alcohol than their peers, according to a new study published earlier this year in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology.

In addition to the problems normally associated with alcohol abuse, the students' heavier drinking also exacerbates their PTSD symptoms, the study found.

"The study doesn't identify what traumas led to the students' stress disorder, but it's safe to assume a good portion of them are survivors of child abuse and/or neglect," says Rayne E. Golay, psychotherapist, child advocate and award-winning author of The Wooden Chair, (www.raynegolay.com), a novel that illustrates the post-traumatic stress in the wake of child abuse and neglect.

Parental alcoholism is often a factor in child abuse and neglect. It's compounded by the risk that as adults, these children model their behavior on their parent - including drinking alcoholically.

Golay, who specializes in addictions counseling, says that in her many years in practice, she saw one common misconception among her alcoholic patients: They all believed that their drinking didn't affect anybody but themselves.

"That's simply not true. In a home with an alcoholic parent, everyone suffers, the most vulnerable being the children," Golay says. "They live in an insecure and unstable home, and because the alcoholic parent's behavior is unpredictable and terrifying, the children learn to be constantly on guard."

Not everyone who drinks alcohol is an alcoholic, Golay is quick to note. And she's not anti-alcohol. However, she urges parents and young adults to seriously evaluate whether alcohol is a problem in their lives, because there are solutions.

Golay offers these suggestions for people who suspect alcohol may play too important a part in their lives:

• Ask yourself the following questions; if you answer "yes" to one, alcohol may be a problem in your life.
Have you had the morning after drink? Do you envy people who can drink without getting into trouble? Does your drinking cause problems at home? Do you tell yourself you can stop any time you want although you keep getting drink? Have you neglected your duties because of drinking? Has anybody suggested you should stop drinking?

• Try having one drink every day for a month.
"One drink -- that is, 12 ounces of beer, 5 ounces of wine or 1.5 ounces of hard liquor -- one drink, no more, no less," Golay says. "If you can do that, you're probably not an alcoholic." She suggests this test because most alcoholics can remain completely abstinent for a length of time, but they're unable to stop after one drink. To an alcoholic, one drink is too much and a million isn't enough.

• If you think alcohol is a problem, a 28-day Minnesota Model treatment program gives good results. Golay mentions Faith Based Treatment (www.SoberRecovery.com), and Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (www.samhsa.gov) among other options.

The residential Minnesota Model combines detox and counseling built around the principles of Alcoholics Anonymous (www.aa.org). Individualized, it includes the patient's family.

"It's effective because it starts with detox from all mood-altering chemicals, which is
imperative for lasting sobriety," Golay says. "It also aims to break down denial. It forces
the patient to take a serious look at the consequences of alcohol in his or her life."
No matter which treatment the individual chooses, aftercare and continued attendance     
at Alcoholics Anonymous meetings are of vital importance for lifelong sobriety.

"When the protagonist, Leini, in my book The Wooden Chair, is a young woman, she realizes that she's relying more and more on alcohol to cope with daily life," Golay says.

"Leini also recognizes that the abuse she suffered as a child and her parent's drinking are family patterns passed down to her from her maternal grandmother through her own mother. In my book The Wooden Chair, Leini determines to end this cycle by getting professional help."

About Rayne E. Golay

Rayne E. Golay, (http://www.raynegolay.com/), is a certified drug and alcohol counselor whose work with addicts informs her understanding and insights into the consequences of child abuse. She has a Master's in Psychology and is a lifelong reader and writer. The Wooden Chair, published in 2013 by Untreed Reads, won the Royal Palm Literary Award for mainstream literature in the 2005 Florida Writers Association's competition.  She hopes that this story inspires witnesses to speak up for children whom they suspect are suffering from any form of abuse and/or neglect.