Sometimes the Heart Sees what is Invisible to the Eye
This week is Valentine’s week so we thought you’d like to think about all things “heart.” This past week has been full of heart and let’s start with what happened at the Wednesday, 2/6/13 Senate Banking and Insurance Committee. Former Senator Locke Burt, CEO, Security First Insurance Company, was at the podium almost an hour (including 25 minutes of questions from committee members) about a topic near and dear to Committee Chairman Simmons’ heart – Citizens Property Insurance Corporation. Chairman Simmons asked for facts about Citizens so the senators on the committee could get a feel for what is/isn’t true and cut through the “rhetoric.” Please view the presentation that opened with two facts straight from the heart (and data!):
- Shrinking Citizens does not require the price paid by Citizens’ policyholders to increase. In fact, thousands of Citizens policyholders could save money by shopping for insurance from the private market.
- Enforcing the current 115% rule for Citizens eligibility (new and renewal policies) would result in fewer people qualifying for coverage at subsidized rates.
He further listed five misconceptions about Citizens, the first of which is the often-touted size of Citizens, with many legislators believing it insures a majority of Floridians. In fact, 77% of Florida policyholders are NOT INSURED by Citizens. Please take a quick glance through the slide presentation. Slide 8 shows the percentage of Citizens policyholders for each of the 12 senators on the committee. Not one of the senators on this committee has 50% or more of Citizens policyholders in their district which begs the question – should the senators be advocating more strongly for the Citizens policyholder than the non-Citizens policyholder? I can send you the committee dialog if you would like to read a near-transcript of the meeting. On Tuesday eve, 2/5/13, the Committee released a draft of the Citizens reform bill – scroll to the bottom of this newsletter to see the summary. I will stand by to hear your feedback and thanks to those who have filled my inbox with lots of “heart” about this topic!
PASSION ABOUT FLORIDA’S HEALTH INSURANCE EXCHANGE
Speaking of heart, the Monday 2/4/13 Affordable Care Act joint committee to discuss Florida’s healthcare plan, featured two government entities passionately (with heart!) discussing why they should become Florida’s insurance exchange. Florida Health Choices director, Rose Naff, discussed how her marketplace provides easy access to affordable, quality health care in a competitive health insurance market. www.myfloridachoices.org. HealthyKids executive director Rich Robleto www.healthykids.org, explained how they are the Florida KidCare partner that provides health coverage for kids ages 5-18 so are poised to assume the exchange role. Brian Webb, Manager of Health Policy and Legislation for the National Association Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) and Paul Wingle, Head of Exchange Strategy and Implementation at Aetna also testified. Aetna, for example, has over 3,500 employees in Florida with almost 50,000 providers in their network and pleaded with the committee to give the healthcare plans a “clear line of sight.” He said, “Who has the ball on essential health benefits? Who has the ball on network adequacy? Will the state or feds define the rating areas on a plan? We need to settle these questions. In business it makes sense to have a clear line of sight and the confusion adds to our headaches as we work to comply with this new law.” Amen Paul!
You will want to look at slide 73 forward of the 2/4/13 meeting packet. Slide 73 forward gives a state-by-state matrix of all 50 states and their Health Insurance Exchange Decisions showing which states are accepting millions in grants to start exchanges. Slide 81 is a fascinating chart by the Kaiser Foundation which provides data for all 50 states reflecting the state’s exchange option, Medicaid expansion, state population, Medicaid enrollment, and number of uninsured.
My notes are available to you so let me know if you want to read the 3 hours of testimony. On Monday, 2/11/13, this committee meets again –please, please watch closely what this committee is doing. I know many of you are property and casualty policy folks but the federal healthcare legislation will dominate much of the debate in the senate and the house during this session.
PIP PERSPECTIVE
In last week’s newsletter, I asked for comments about the possibility of eliminating/repealing Florida’s personal injury protection (PIP) coverage because, conceivably, the federal Affordable Care Act (ACA) could take its place. Many of you responded with an almost even split of those who support the idea and those who don’t. The reason primarily for not supporting PIP’s repeal was the uncertainty of the ACA’s coverage, the go-no-go decisions around a Florida health insurance exchange and the many facets you have been reading as we cover the unfolding ACA story in Florida. I was pleased to see that the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies (NAMIC) provided the following:
“Lisa, thanks for your always informative newsletter. In response to your question about how the ACA could replace PIP in Florida, I wanted to provide the attached white paper written by Peter Kinzler and others that establishes health insurance “primacy,” where we could transfer all auto insurance PIP costs to the health insurance system, since ostensibly everyone would have full health coverage under the ACA although the authors don’t specifically recommend or contemplate repealing a state’s PIP law as a means of accomplishing this. Alternatively, the paper envisions a system with health insurance primacy but in which health insurers would have subrogation rights against PIP insurers. A third alternative would be to allow PIP benefits to mirror whatever health insurance benefits are available under the ACA, which would presumably be less generous than what is currently available under PIP. Essentially, the paper identifies three ways in which PIP could conceivably interact with the ACA to reduce auto insurance medical costs. Readers will want to pay particular attention to pages 13 to 15.” Please read this well-thought out white paper.
Thank you Liz Reynolds, NAMIC’s southeast region state affairs manager, for providing this insight.
A Note about Legislative Aides – talk about HEART!
I fractured my knee a couple weeks ago and am doing the “crutch” walk around the Capitol. I am heartened by the wonderful smiles from the capitol crowd but particularly from the legislative aides I see every day. These young men and women (some as young as 20 and some as “seasoned” as 60) work with HEART! They are dedicated public servants who have to learn all the issues their legislator/boss must know and in some instances, know the issues even better as they write talking points, meet with industry experts when their boss is tied up, and listen to constituent after constituent who “knows” exactly how to fix the issue! Some of these unsung heroes have names like John, Kevin, Laura, Jessica, James, Emily, Jared, Ralph, Nanci, Patrick, Becky, Cori, Cheri, Lynda, Michael, Eric, Katie, Clay, and the list goes on.
We have asked you in the past to send a note or call the legislative offices in your area and simply thank your legislators for what they do but don’t forget to salute the legislative aides who are an important part of our legislature’s heart!
Happy Valentine’s Week and thank you for all you do!
My best, Lisa Miller
