Vermont governor orders review of small-business health coverage options
Gov. Phil Scott signed an executive order July 8 directing Vermont to review and modernize its framework for Association Health Plans, Multiple Employer Welfare Arrangements and other health-coverage options for small businesses.
The administration said the review is intended to expand insurance choices and lower costs. It begins a state policy process, rather than immediately changing Vermont law or putting a specific new insurance plan into effect.
What the order covers
Association Health Plans and Multiple Employer Welfare Arrangements are specifically included in the review ordered by Scott. The action also reaches other options for health coverage used by small businesses.
The announced focus is Vermont’s health-insurance regulatory framework. Small businesses and their employees are the people most directly connected to the coverage options under review, although the announcement did not say how many employers or residents could ultimately be affected.
The State of Vermont described the objectives as giving businesses more insurance choices and reducing costs. Those are policy goals for the review, not confirmed results. The order does not establish new premiums, benefits or enrollment eligibility.
No immediate change to coverage rules
The executive order does not mean revised Association Health Plan rules are already available in Vermont. Nor does it guarantee that broader coverage or lower costs will result from the review.
For employers and workers, the immediate development is the start of a review of the state’s approach to these health-coverage arrangements. Any future changes to the framework would depend on the work that follows the order; the available announcement did not identify a specific plan approved for implementation.
It also did not provide a completion deadline for the review. As a result, the announcement does not establish when Vermont might make recommendations, adopt regulatory changes or otherwise act on the issues being examined.
Small-business affordability is part of the debate
The National Federation of Independent Business, a small-business advocacy group, said high health-insurance costs affect small businesses. The group linked those costs to employers’ ability to recruit workers and compete.
That assessment provides stakeholder context for the governor’s action, but it is not a finding in the executive order and does not measure the effect of the new review. The available materials provide no estimate of potential savings, no projected enrollment figures and no count of businesses that could use any option considered through the process.
Scott’s administration placed the healthcare action alongside its priorities involving housing, education, energy and the cost of living. In the healthcare portion of that agenda, the executive order puts insurance-market reform and small-business coverage options under review.
What happens next
The known next step is the review and modernization work directed by the executive order. Vermont has not announced, in the available materials, a deadline for that work or a timetable for possible decisions.
For now, the order should be understood as a direction to examine options, not as an immediate change in what insurance is offered, what it costs or who can enroll. Whether the review produces proposed regulatory changes or other actions remains unresolved in the information released with the announcement.
Sources
- Governor Phil Scott Signs Healthcare Executive Order to Expand Insurance Choices and Lower Costs, State of Vermont
- Governor Phil Scott’s New Executive Order Gets Healthcare Policy Right, National Federation of Independent Business