Accomplishments and Activities
March 2012-March 2013

April 2012: Held 16th Annual One Heart at a Time Golf Tournament. Raised a record $24,250 for Cystic Fibrosis.

April 2012: Had successful Carrier Panel with 7 carriers represented.

June 2012: Celebration of Women in Business event once again sold out. Raised a record $30,401.44 for New Hope Grief Support Community.

OCAHU awarded the NAHU William Flood award for Public Service for the 2nd consecutive year.

July 2012: The YAHU program officially launched under the direction of Board Members, Lawrence Hartley and Ryan Bradley.

September 2012: Held annual CE Day. At the event we presented James Goodson from Cystic Fibrosis and Susan Beeney from New Hope Grief Support Community our donations to their respective charities.

October 2012: Fifth annual Client Day featuring Bruce Benton, NAHU President and Neil Crosby, CAHU VP of Public Affairs. October 15-21 declared OCAHU Health Care Awareness Week. Received the CAHU Outstanding Newsletter award at the CAHU Summit.

November 2012: Chuck Rosen, President of CAHU was the featured speaker at our Legislative Day.

OCAHU nominated for the National Philanthropy Award sponsored by the Orange County Register.

December 2012: Had first PAC fundraiser at Dave and Busters in Orange, CA. Raised $1800 for PAC.

Conducted out annual Holiday program at Kaiser facility in Irvine. Donated toys and $500 for the pediatric ward.

January 2013: Our January meeting was devoted to ERISA, FMLA and Health Care Reform Compliance. It was presented by Carolyn McNairy from TASC.

February 2013: Held out annual Sales Symposium (renamed Business Development Summit). Had record attendance of 492 attendees and recruited 16 new OCAHU members at the event.

March 2013: Our March meeting was devoted to the Agent's Role in Health Care Reform and was presented by John Nelson, past NAHU and CAHU President and Gordon Memorial recipient. Prior to the meeting a new member orientation was conducted. LPRT designees and Triple Crown winners were recognized at the meeting along with our Top Membership recruiter, Maggie Stedt.

CALL to ACTION

PLEASE JOIN US AND A GROWING
 COALITION OF BUSINESS, INDUSTRY AND
HEALTH GROUPS TO PROTECT
CALIFORNIANS' HEALTH.

We need your help. CAHU has a heavy year of legislative and regulatory action. We have a simple, online system -- VoterVoice --a grassroots interface designed to communicate, via email, a group's position on an issue to political leaders. Please take action on the following bills which will be heard in committee soon.

SB 161 (Hernandez) continues to move forward

in the Legislature. Please participate in this opposition campaign. If any of your clients will be impacted by this bill

-- ask for their help as well.

CAHU, NAIFA-CA and the Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of California (IIABCal) need your help to fight this bill.

SB 161 (Hernandez) Stop Loss Insurance Coverage,will severely restrict the ability of California small employers to choose to self-insure for health care coverage by setting unreasonably expensive specific and aggregate attachment points on stop loss policies. SB 161 would require a minimum specific stop-loss deductible of $65,000 per person, and a number of aggregate attachment points, including one that requires a $13,000 per employee and per dependent

for employers with 50 or fewer employees in 2014. Most other states set specific attachment points in

the $10,000 to $20,000 range. 
 
Raising the minimum aggregate stop-loss to a level that is 300 percent of the average health insurance premium rate in California and setting the specific stop-loss attachment point to a level that is higher than many jumbo sized employers would pay is not the right policy.  It is important to remember that

stop-loss coverage is essentially a financial tool to protect the employers from going out of business when health claims costs get too high. 
 
Self-insurance combined with stop loss coverage for excessive, unexpected claims, frequently offers the best option for small employers seeking to find any way to provide affordable health coverage for their employees.  However, the high dollar stop loss attachment points in SB 161 will make it financially impossible for most small employers to self-insure.   
 
SB 161 takes away a critically important financial tool used by small employers to make prudent choices to control costs of providing health coverage.  If a small employer wishes to finance their employee health coverage through self-insurance that includes purchasing actuarially appropriate stop loss policies, I believe they should continue to be allowed to do so.
 
Please urge your state senator to vote NO on SB 161 (Hernandez). Click here to Make Your Voice Heard!

If you would like to learn more about how this bill will impact you and your clients, click here to sign up for CAHU's Legislative Alerts and email communications.