December 10,2014
The City of Visalia was notified Tuesday that prospects now “look good” for Cigna and other insurers seeking expatriate provisions in a Senate bill to be voted on later this week. Cigna employs 700 in Visalia and had said they could close the Visalia office if their waiver request to the Affordable Care Act was not granted. Concerned about the loss of a major employer Tulare County officials have been busy lining up support for the waiver.
Visalia’s Washington lobbyist Greg Burns Vice President at Van Scoyoc Associates emailed City Manager Mike Olmos Tuesday,December 9. The email from Olmos says as follows.
“Council, we were notified by Greg Burns this evening that the Cigna expatriate provisions were added to the Senate Omnibus Funding Bill as we had hoped. While this is a more roundabout way of getting it through (in comparison to the “hot line” process that requires all Senators to agree to passage, and Senator Cruz opposed), the likelihood of the Omnibus bill passing in some version is high, and the expatriate provisions are not expected to hinder it. Greg has spoken with the Cigna folks in DC today and said they are pleased. So, while we’re not out of the woods yet, prospects for getting the expat fix made are now very good.”
The waiver is sought for large insurance companies including Cigna who have a sizable expatriate customer base overseas now impacted by Obamacare as of January 2015. The health care law requires certain mandates that their foreign competitors don’t have to comply with.The waiver would affect plans that cover people working outside their home country, including foreign employees working in America or Americans working abroad.
Cigna says they have about one million Americans who work overseas and get their care there that will be subject to rules like free preventive care that foreign-based insurance plans don’t have to offer. That puts US-based insurance firms at a competitive disadvantage, they argue.
