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Credit Union Times

AUGUS T 16, 2017 | VOL. 28 | NO. 28 | CUTIMES.COM

hen President Trump rolled out his budget proposal in May, it included massive cuts to federal student loan programs.

Now that piece of paper seems so three months ago. In a politically divided nation, sometimes the best bet is on nothing happening.

But even if no changes occur
in the ultimate budget Congress
must pass this fall, college costs
will continue to rise and students
and their families will be strug-
gling to pay the higher out-of-
pocket costs.

Sallie Mae and other banks are
gearing up for a bigger role, and so
too is CU Student Choice, the larg-
est CUSO, with members holding
half of the $4 billion in private stu-
dent loans on credit union books
in March. Another CUSO, CU
Campus Resources of Madison,
Wis., was acquired by Thrivent
Federal Credit Union in May.

Those involved in education finance are assessing the political scene, weighing last year’s election results, discussions about cuts at the U.S. Department of Education and budget proposals from Trump and House Republicans.

“We expect there will be major changes coming. We don’t know what that means or what that will look like,” Scott Patterson,

EDUCATION

Filling the Student Lending Gap

JIM DUPLESSIS

jduplessis@cutimes.com

Y15

HEALTH CARE

Controlling Costs

Employers are starting to think
outside the box when it comes
to health care sticker shock.
While still pursuing tradition-
al methods to controlling rising
health care costs, such as cost
sharing and plan design chang-
es, large employers are increas-
ingly looking to new cost-savings
methods and ways to improve
outcomes and increase satisfac-
tion for their employees, accord-
ing to the Large Employers’ 2018
Health Care Strategy and Plan
Design Survey, by the National
Business Group on Health.
“As we approach 2020, em-
ployers will continue to do all that
they can to control costs through
demand-side initiatives — im-
plementing consumer-directed
health plans, modifying plan de-
sign and cost-sharing strategies,
and adding price transparency
tools,” the authors wrote. “How-
ever, employers are increasingly
focusing on areas that address
how health care is delivered and
paid for — telehealth, onsite
clinics, centers of excellence and
accountable care organizations.”
“Another strategy many em-
ployers are pursuing involves
new ways to guide and navigate
employees through the complex-
ities of the system,” they write.
“At the same time, employers
also remain focused on special-
ty pharmacy, which continues
to be a primary driver of health
care costs.”
And rising costs are still a
grave concern, according Y14

Must Reads FOCUSREPORT:
HUMAN RESOURCES
& BENEFITS

Three guarantees in life are death, taxes and rising health insurance costs. Learn how some credit unions are reducing their health care expenses while continuing to offer quality benefits to their employees in this Focus Report. Y6

Fiscal Storm
Survival
DAVID BAUMANN
dbaumann@cutimes.com

uerto Rico’s cooperativa system — state-insured credit unions that are a foundation of many communities — can withstand the island’s financial crisis, even though they heavily invested in government bonds.

That’s the word from the Fiscal Oversight Board — the institution created by Congress to sort out the fiscal mess that has led to the island seeking court protection from its debts.

The board has amended and approved the fiscal plan submitted by the Corporation for the Supervision and Insurance of Cooperativas (COSSEC), which insures and regulates the cooperativas that operate in addition to the credit unions insured by the NCUA.

That plan provides the first official glimpse into the financial cooperative system since the financial crisis.

And despite the current financial health of the cooperativas, the board created a new committee to oversee the agency. The committee was directed to develop a long-term plan that could ultimately include moving the institutions into the NCUA system or the banking system operated by the Office of Commissioner of Financial Institutions of Puerto Rico.