GOVERNOR OUTLINES HEALTH CARE PROPOSALS IN STATE OF THE STATE ADDRESS

 Last week Governor Strickland gave his State of the State address which provided insights to his top priorities.  The centerpiece of his address was a major overhaul of Ohio’s K-12 public education system.  With respect to access to health care coverage, the Governor highlighted several initiatives, and later in the day, OAHU participated in a conference call with the Ohio Department of Insurance who provided more insight into the proposals.  The Strickland Administration estimates that the following programs will provide 110,000 more Ohioans with health insurance coverage:

1. Authorize parents with employer-provided insurance to purchase coverage for their dependents up to the age of 29 and extend the state tax deduction for employer sponsored coverage to all family and dependent coverage. (Over 21,000 more Ohioans with coverage)
   
   
2. Reform Ohio’s individual open enrollment programs to provide affordable options for people who have pre-existing health conditions.  Would require insurers to charge no more than 1 and 1/2 times the individual market base rate for those who qualify for open enrollment. ODI projects that open enrollment rates would be reduced by 50-70% and individual market rates would increase by 5.5%. To evenly spread the risk among insurers, each insurer selling in the individual market would be required to have 4.5% of their individual market business include those in the open enrollment program. ODI has informed OAHU that commissions paid to agents for signing up persons going into the open enrollment programs will be capped at 5%. (52,000 more Ohioans with coverage)
   
   
3. Require employers to offer uninsured employees the opportunity to purchase coverage with pre-tax dollars through Section 125 cafeteria plans, saving up to 40% off the cost of coverage. (37,000 more Ohioans with coverage)
   
   
4. Authorize small business employees (who do not qualify for COBRA) who lose their jobs to purchase continuation coverage for up to 12 months.
   
   
5. Create the Ohio Health Care Coverage and Quality Council to assist in funding implementation of the Ohio Health Quality Improvement Plan.
   
   
6. Conduct a study of how health coverage programs can and should be financed going forward.
   
   
7. Fund health information technology to provide broad use of electronic medical records and develop an electronic medical home.  These investments will be enhanced with federal stimulus funds.
   
   
8. Require insurers to file all individual and small group health insurance rates and loss ratio data with the Department of Insurance.
   
   
9. Allow ODI to order independent reviews of health claim denials.
   
   
10. Consolidate within ODI all health insurer network adequacy review and regulation.

 OAHU will be having further discussions with ODI, legislators and other stakeholders to ask further questions about these proposals and should see the actual budget language relating to these proposals when the budget is formally introduced later this week.

 

 HOW TO CONTACT YOUR FEDERAL AND STATE LEGISLATORS

 The National Association of Health Underwriters has a direct link on how to contact your federal and state legislators.  The link is: http://capwiz.com/nahu/home/. 

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