Florida’s largest insurers say they like governor’s health plan
By Carol Gentry, Editor
2/26/2008 © Florida Health News
Both of Florida’s top-selling commercial health insurers say they like Gov. Charlie Crist’s proposal for covering more of Florida’s uninsured citizens.
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UnitedHealthcare intends to bid for the business if Crist’s plan for low-cost, stripped-down coverage still looks good after it goes through the legislative process, said John Matthews, Southeastern director of public policy and public affairs.
“We’re excited the governor has decided to tackle the issue,” he said. “It’s one of the harder issues out there” to address and to pass.
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida is also bullish on the “Cover Florida Plan,” said Randy Kammer, vice president of regulatory affairs and public policy. She likes Crist’s suggestion of extending family policies to adult children up to age 30 and a program that seeks out and connects uninsured people to a community clinic that can serve as their “medical home.”
“There’s a lot of really good stuff in there,” Kammer said. “It’s a fabulous idea.”
Immediately after the proposal was unveiled a week ago, it drew criticism. Some said that no plan would work as long as employers and individuals aren’t required to sign up for it.
Others predicted a fiscal nightmare because Crist would require insurers to take all comers, including those who have health risks. This “guaranteed issue” would create a stampede of sick people who have been shut out of coverage to sign up for the program, they warned.
But Matthews said it’s premature to predict disaster before details of the plan are worked out. The new secretary of the Agency for Health Care Administration, Holly Benson, has said she looks forward to negotiating plans that will sell.
No one, including Crist, asserts that his program would provide coverage for all of Florida’s uninsured, estimated by the Census Bureau last year at 3.6 million and rising. But the program would chip away at the problem from several angles:
- Small employers and self-employed persons who cannot afford traditional coverage could buy policies that are “mandate-free” or, as Matthews calls it, “mandate-lite.” Plans would cover the usual – health screenings, doctors’ office visits, urgent care, hospital stays and prescription drugs – but would have flexibility in setting limits, deductibles and co-payments. The aim would be to make coverage bare-bones enough to sell for $150 a month. The state would negotiate the terms with participating companies.
- Young adults, who are the least likely age group to pay for health coverage because they gamble that they won’t get sick or hurt, could be added to their parents’ policies until they reach age 30.
- KidCare, Florida’s federally subsidized program for uninsured children, would expand to cover more of them and would let parents buy coverage for children at full price if their income exceeds the program limits for subsidies.
- An effort to locate uninsured persons and hook them up with health-care programs that meets their needs at a price they could afford. A pilot program in Palm Beach County has shown that uninsured families and individuals often do not make use of existing treatment facilities or insurance programs because they do not know about them.
- Abolition of a state program that requires hospitals to obtain a “certificate of need,” or CON, before planning new construction. The CON law was established to prevent duplication of services supported by tax dollars, but Crist says he thinks it is anti-competitive and an inappropriate role for government.
Contact Carol Gentry at 727-410-3266 or Carol.Gentry@FloridaHealthNews.org.
