More than 181 Million Americans

Receive Health Insurance through Employers

The National Coalition on Benefits is dedicated to preserving those benefits.

We are a coalition of businesses and associations established to protect the ability of employers to provide uniform health and retirement benefits to employees and retirees across the country. The Coalition is dedicated to the preservation of ERISA — the foundational law for employer sponsored coverage valued by the more than 181 million Americans who receive health coverage as an employment benefit.

MISSION AND PRINCIPLES

Mission:

To work with Congress to maintain employers’ ability to provide uniform health and retirement benefits to employees and retirees across state and local lines and to ensure that federal health reform initiatives preserve ERISA benefits.

The National Coalition on Benefits is united in our support of the following principles:

ERISA’s federal framework must be maintained.

The federal framework that governs employer-sponsored benefits was enacted in the 1974 Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) to provide comprehensive federal regulation of employee benefits. This federal framework is what enables employers to provide benefits and therefore must be preserved, even while efforts to address the uninsured are underway at the federal, state and local levels.
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[accordion-item title=”Employers’ ability to offer and maintain uniform benefit plans across state and local lines must be preserved.” state=open]Uniformity in benefit design and administration results in lower costs through economies of scale, purchasing leverage and administrative efficiencies, and improves the application of best practices. Uniformity is especially important when employers provide benefits to employees and retirees who reside or work in multiple locations. [/accordion-item]
[accordion-item title=”Employers must continue to have the flexibility to determine how to best meet the needs of their employees and retirees.” state=closed]Uniformity in benefit design and administration results in lower costs through economies of scale, purchasing leverage and administrative efficiencies, and improves the application of best practices. Uniformity is especially important when employers provide benefits to employees and retirees who reside or work in multiple locations. [/accordion-item]
[accordion-item title=”Reforms to the current health and retirement benefits system must continue ERISA’s goals of promoting simplicity and predictability.” state=closed]Uniformity in benefit design and administration results in lower costs through economies of scale, purchasing leverage and administrative efficiencies, and improves the application of best practices. Uniformity is especially important when employers provide benefits to employees and retirees who reside or work in multiple locations. [/accordion-item]
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Federal initiatives should not permit States to adversely impact ERISA.

While States have a role in covering the uninsured, there should be no waiver or exception from ERISA through “pay or play” schemes or through taxes on ERISA benefits or the employers that provide them. Any such exception, waiver or carve-out will result in a patchwork of state mandates and regulations that will discourage employers from offering benefits.