{"id":17200,"date":"2019-10-16T09:20:44","date_gmt":"2019-10-16T13:20:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.benefitscanada.com\/news\/ontario-launches-consultations-on-benefits-plan-pooling-137236"},"modified":"2019-10-16T09:20:44","modified_gmt":"2019-10-16T13:20:44","slug":"ontario-launches-consultation-on-benefits-plan-pooling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/2019\/10\/16\/ontario-launches-consultation-on-benefits-plan-pooling\/","title":{"rendered":"Ontario launches consultation on benefits plan pooling"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"alignleft clearfix\">\n<div class=\"wp-caption feature-image alignleft\"> <img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"350\" height=\"263\" src=\"https:\/\/www.benefitscanada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/88989183_l-350x263.jpg\" class=\"attachment-feature size-feature wp-post-image\" alt=\"123rf_alphaspirit\" title=\"Ontario launches consultation on benefits plan pooling\"> <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p class=\"byline\"> <span>Kelsey Rolfe<\/span>&nbsp;|&nbsp;October 16, 2019 <\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The Ontario government has launched a consultation on adopting benefits pooling for broader public sector employees.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">In&nbsp;previous discussions, both public sector employers and bargaining agents expressed interest in looking at centralized benefits pooling, according to a news release.&nbsp;<\/span><span class=\"s1\">The government said public sector compensation represents about&nbsp;half of all government spending, at a total cost of $72 billion, and estimates the move to benefits pooling could generate $115 million in savings.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.benefitscanada.com\/benefits\/health-benefits\/health-pooling-is-there-a-better-way-67716\">Health pooling: is there a better way?<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cWe have consulted with the broader public sector in good faith and have considered all ideas that have been put on the table,\u201d said Treasury Board president Peter Bethlefalvy. \u201cThe government is working collaboratively with employers and bargaining agents to protect frontline services, public sector jobs and make Ontario fiscally sustainable.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Currently, Ontario has a benefits pooling arrangement with more than a dozen broader public sector employers.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Suzanne Lepage, a private health plan strategist, says the government could see the most savings from big-ticket benefits plan items such as its drug plans, out-of-country coverage and private duty nursing. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cPooling allows organizations to share the risk or spread the risk over a bigger group, and so in doing that&nbsp;. . . it basically allows everyone to share in the cost and&nbsp;it, overall, can diminish&nbsp;the&nbsp;impact of high-cost drugs,\u201d she says.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.benefitscanada.com\/news\/canadian-group-benefits-costs-expected-to-grow-6-in-2020-report-135799\">Canadian group benefits costs expected to grow 6% in 2020: report<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.benefitscanada.com\/news\/ontario-launches-consultations-on-benefits-plan-pooling-137236\">Read the full article at BenefitsCanada.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kelsey Rolfe&nbsp;|&nbsp;October 16, 2019 The Ontario government has launched a consultation on adopting benefits pooling for broader public sector employees. In&nbsp;previous discussions, both public sector employers and bargaining agents expressed interest in looking at&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17200"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17200"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17200\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}