House Finance Committee Cancels Budget Hearings 

Late last Friday, the Ohio House Finance & Appropriations Committee cancelled all their budget hearings scheduled for this week.  Apparently, this was due to the fact that the recently passed federal stimulus legislation includes about $600 million less for Ohio than what the Strickland Administration had estimated in preparing their proposed biennial budget.  Reports are that the actual budget language may not be available until next week.  Presumably, hearings will then resume.

ODI to discuss Budget with OAHU Legislative Committee 

This week, representatives from the Ohio Department of Insurance will attend the OAHU Legislative Committee meeting to discuss provisions in the proposed state budget to increase the number of insured Ohioans by 110,000.  The three proposals to attain the 110,000 more insured are:

            52,000 more insured by capping individual market open enrollment rates (for high risk individuals) to 150% of standard rates (which is projected to decrease open enrollment rates by 50-70%); individual market rates are projected to increase 5.5%.

            21,000 more insured by expanding dependent coverage up to age 29 and extending the state tax deduction for employer coverage to all family and dependent coverage.

            37,000 more insured by requiring employers to offer employees the opportunity to purchase coverage with pre-tax dollars through Section 125 cafeteria plans, saving up to 40% off the cost of coverage.

OAHU has several questions concerning how these proposals will realistically reach their stated goals and is concerned about how the plan to cover high risk individuals could cause the individual market to go into a “death spiral.”  OAHU will be developing a plan of action as we further understand these proposals and after further discussions with key legislators and stakeholders.

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