Crist’s insurance expansion gets unanimous approval in first committee

By Christine Jordan Sexton
3/19/2008 © Florida Health News
TALLAHASSEE -- A state Senate panel on Tuesday gave the first go-ahead to Gov. Charlie Crist’s ambitious proposal to lower the number of uninsured residents by making pared-back health coverage available to all who want it for $150 a month or less.

Crist’s Cover Florida Plan, sponsored by Sen. Durell Peaden on the governor’s behalf,  passed the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee unanimously. In a release, the governor commended the committee for passing his “market-based strategy” to reduce the number of Floridians who lack health insurance, estimated at 3.8 million.

The plan will go a long way toward meeting the needs of the uninsured, said lobbyist Gerald Wester, who represents Aetna and Cigna. “I think it’s very important to recognize there is a large segment of that 3.8 million folks out there that $100 or $150 bucks is all they are going to be able to afford.”  

The Senate committee addressed only the parts of Crist’s plan that involve insurance expansion:

• Low-cost plans. Insurers and networks of doctors and hospitals would present bids to the state to offer two types of plans – a catastrophic policy that would cost no more than $150 a month and a basic plan that would offer common benefits, such as preventive screenings, doctor’s visits, outpatient surgery, and medical equipment. That plans would not have to include all the services now required by law, called mandates, but would have to take all applicants, regardless of health risk.  To keep premiums low, companies would have flexibility in co-payments, deductibles and coverage caps. Companies would not be required to participate and – unlike the Massachusetts health law – Floridians would not have to buy the insurance, even if they could well afford to. 
• Enrollment in the Florida KidCare program would be open to families with incomes that have been above the program limits, as long as they pay full cost of the coverage. 
• The upper-income limit in the Florida Health Flex program, which allows no-frills health insurance to be sold in certain areas of the state, would be raised to 300 percent of the federal poverty level, or $63,600 for a family of four. The experimental program, which has not caught on and is set to expire this summer, would be extended to July 2013. 
• Group insurers could offer families the option of keeping their adult children on their policy until age 30.

 Florida Chamber of Commerce lobbyist Joanna Bonfanti said her association supports the Health Flex expansions and is “interested and excited about the new options.”

Ironically, the Senate committee approved Crist's bill allowing reduced benefits the same day it passed one  that adds a mandate to state law requiring policies to cover diagnostic and treatment costs associated with autism in children. It would include behavioral therapy up to $36,000 a year and would be adjusted for inflation. SB 2654, sponsored by Sen. Steve Geller, applies to insurance companies and HMOs that write coverage for groups of 50 or more.

The bill that passed Tuesday did not address Crist’s three-year, $60-million program to find uninsured residents in 14 counties and get them enrolled in coverage for which they may qualify. It also left out his dental-care expansion and his proposal to eliminate the state certificate-of-need program , required for new hospitals.

The House Health Care Council, meanwhile, is moving ahead with its own package of insurance reforms, including a virtual “marketplace” where insurance companies could offer mandate-free health care plans. The marketplace would relieve employers from the burden of administering health plans. Employees would  choose the plans that best fit their needs.