By JAMES P. HALLAN,
MRA President and Chief Executive Officer
The Michigan Retailers Association is proud to launch the MRA Private Insurance Exchange. The debut of this new exchange, effective July 1, is the result of more than a year of intense planning and testing. Our goal is to provide you with more benefit options and cutting-edge technology so you can quickly evaluate plan benefits and costs. On the health insurance side, MRA will provide plan offerings backed by Priority Health and HAP, and continue to offer BCBS. Dental insurance will also be on the exchange along with small group life, disability and vision. Dental insurance will be underwritten by Retailers Insurance Company and continue to be administered by our longtime partner, Delta Dental of Michigan. Guardian will provide small group life insurance and disability. Vision will be provided by VSP. We believe this enhanced product selection and the ease of selecting plans will prove to be a strong membership benefit.
BALLOT ISSUES
The trend of enacting legislation by ballot initiatives continues. Two ballot issues have already been certified and will be on the November ballot unless the legislature directly enacts the ballot language. As of this writing, the two certified issues are the legalization of marijuana and the elimination of the state’s prevailing wage law which would end the requirement that union wages be paid for public projects like schools and government buildings. Yet to be certified are two very troubling issues for retailers. The first is another attempt to mandate scheduled increases in the minimum wage law and the second would mandate family and sick leave time for employees under a very complicated formula. If minimum wage and mandated leave issues are certified, expect Michigan Retailers to be fully engaged, as the MRA board has already taken a position of opposition on these issues.
SCAMS
The frequency of scams, random telephone calls, identity theft, and cyber attacks are increasing at an alarming rate. Unfortunately, there is not a simple defensive system that is 100 percent foolproof. Probably the old adage is still applicable: “If it sounds too good to be true, it’s most likely not a good deal.” Keep the antennas on high alert both from a personal and business perspective.
RETAILERS INSURANCE COMPANY
Finally, I’m very pleased to report that our Lansing-based Retailers Insurance Company’s financial rating has been upgraded to (A Prime) Unsurpassed by Demotech. This level of financial stability is assigned to insurers who have unsurpassed financial stability related to maintaining positive surplus and other criteria, including liquidity of invested assets. Demotech has been rating insurance carriers since 1985.
