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Manufacturers are committed to providing health insurance for their workers, but Congress needs to take action to address increasing health care costs, the NAM said in a letter to Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Chair Bill Cassidy (R-LA) earlier this week.

What’s going on: Last week, the Senate HELP Committee held a hearing on health care affordability, an important topic for manufacturers, as 93% of manufacturing employees are eligible for health insurance benefits through their employer.

• “Sixty percent of manufacturers and 67% of small manufacturers cited health care costs as their primary business concern in the NAM’s most recent Manufacturers’ Outlook Survey,” the NAM said. This “underscores the urgent need for action to reduce health care costs for manufacturers and manufacturing workers alike.”

What should be done: During the hearing, Chair Cassidy emphasized that Congress needs to address “the network of perverse incentives throughout the health care system.” The NAM agrees and recommended actions Congress should take to lower the cost of health care, including:

• Ensure employer plan sponsors have user-friendly access to their data, allowing them to make informed decisions about their plans’ operations;
• Reform pharmacy benefit managers, the underregulated middlemen that contribute to the skyrocketing cost of health care for patients and employers;
• Reform the 340B Drug Pricing Program, which has been abused and led to increased costs for patients and employers;
• Strengthen the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, the law that allows manufacturers to offer uniform health benefits to workers across states; and
• Protect ERISA’s federal preemption, which allows multistate employers to design and administer uniform benefits to all of their employees, regardless of the state they live in.

The last word: “Manufacturers are committed to continuing to offer health insurance to their employees,” said NAM Director of Health Care Policy Jess Wysocky. “The NAM applauds Chairman Cassidy for holding a hearing on ways to reduce health care costs for manufacturers and manufacturing workers—and we encourage Congress to take action to reform the middlemen that are making it more difficult to offer and access affordable health care.”