State & Federal Legislative News
Sue McKay
Dan Bernier gave a detailed report at the September Sales Congress about possible upcoming State legislative efforts. In particular, the prospect of Maine forming its own Health Insurance Exchange. While this wouldn’t help reduce the cost of healthcare or impact what Mainers might be eligible for in advanced tax credits through the Marketplace, it could be a first concrete step towards another stab at a single payer system down the road. NAIFA-Maine has felt for decades that we do not have the population needed to support a single payer system. On other issues, there is still interest in some camps for a mandatory, unless one opts out, state imposed retirement system. Stay tuned…
If you decided not to attend the September Sales Congress, not only did you miss Dan’s insights, but all the speakers touched on Maine and Federal laws. Rick Abbondanza, a well respected attorney from Portland talked about changes in Maine’s Probate Laws that just went into effect in September. If you have clients that are divorced and haven’t updated their beneficiary designations since the passage of these new laws, they need to…. One of the new laws also allows people to leave their homes to others without going through a trust or probate by using a beneficiary designation. Click here to see Rick's Power Point. There were so many changes I couldn’t take enough notes!
The Feds are not finding common ground on issues to get legislation passed. It now seems like the SECURE Act will only be passed if it can be included in a successful passage of a large appropriations bill. Since the Government can’t seem to agree on much these days, to avoid running out of money, they will most likely pass a band-aid Continuing Resolution to fund until November. There is a lot of discussion going on about surprise medical bills and the high cost of RX drugs. There are several tax proposals floating around, but nothing seems to have any traction on those.
Please put the February 4th State Legislative meeting in Augusta on your 2020 calendars. Our State Superintendent of Insurance, Eric Cioppa, will be the featured speaker.
Susan W. McKay
NAIFA-ME Political Involvement Chair
If you decided not to attend the September Sales Congress, not only did you miss Dan’s insights, but all the speakers touched on Maine and Federal laws. Rick Abbondanza, a well respected attorney from Portland talked about changes in Maine’s Probate Laws that just went into effect in September. If you have clients that are divorced and haven’t updated their beneficiary designations since the passage of these new laws, they need to…. One of the new laws also allows people to leave their homes to others without going through a trust or probate by using a beneficiary designation. Click here to see Rick's Power Point. There were so many changes I couldn’t take enough notes!
The Feds are not finding common ground on issues to get legislation passed. It now seems like the SECURE Act will only be passed if it can be included in a successful passage of a large appropriations bill. Since the Government can’t seem to agree on much these days, to avoid running out of money, they will most likely pass a band-aid Continuing Resolution to fund until November. There is a lot of discussion going on about surprise medical bills and the high cost of RX drugs. There are several tax proposals floating around, but nothing seems to have any traction on those.
Please put the February 4th State Legislative meeting in Augusta on your 2020 calendars. Our State Superintendent of Insurance, Eric Cioppa, will be the featured speaker.
Susan W. McKay
NAIFA-ME Political Involvement Chair
