Municipal Benefits Services operates exclusively for the benefit of municipalities in Pennsylvania that participate in the Trust and is managed by a Board of municipal employers and professionals.
Our medical, dental and vision programs are self-insured, which creates significant savings to our members by avoiding the Affordable Care Act (ACA) Health Insurance Tax (which could be as high as 4%+ in 2018 and indexed to increase for future years), eliminating state insurance taxes, carrier risk and margin charges, etc. These taxes are built into all fully insured contracts and could add another 8% to 10% into the rates paid by an employer.
By pooling the groups together (both large and small), we are able to significantly reduce administration costs, and spread the financial and clinical risks across all participating employers more efficiently. This enables MBS to keep our rates low and stable for our participating groups year-after-year, covering the claims experience peaks and valleys of each group.
Our underwriting model is pure with rates determined by an independent actuary. MBS does not play the game of “buying the business” by providing significantly discounted first year entry rates through an arbitrary underwriting decision. In addition, we do not adjust our existing groups’ rates to match competitor’s rates.
