By Mike Shields
KHI News Service
TOPEKA, March 19
A bill aiming to make 2008 the big year for health care reform in Kansas was approved Monday by the Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee.
That favorable vote came only minutes after a revamped Senate Bill 309 also was endorsed by the Health for All Kansans Steering Committee, which was meeting a block away but almost simultaneously with the legislative committee.
The two committees have each been on track to approve the bill for at least the past two weeks.
SB 309 began as the most sweeping reform proposal
of the current legislative session but ran into early and stiff resistance from the state”s largest health insurance companies and small business groups. After hitting those political roadblocks, its chief sponsor, Sen. Jim Barnett, R-Emporia, and others on the Health for All Kansans Steering Committee began the task of morphing the bill into a promise of big things to come.
The Health for All Kansans Committee was created after Gov. Kathleen Sebelius in January challenged legislators and the Kansas Health Policy Authority to come up with a plan this year for “universal coverage.” Instead,
the committee approved a list of six items for possible legislative action this year
and SB 309, which looks to the years ahead for more consequential reforms.
Here”s what the new language in the bill calls for:
By Nov. 1, 2007, the Kansas Health Policy Authority is to deliver to the governor and legislative leaders health care finance reform options, including analysis of a health care connector or exchange as proposed by Barnett in the original SB 309 and also a connector model that relies upon voluntary participation. Barnett”s original connector model required participation of all those currently uninsured or a $10,000 escrow to cover medical expenses. The authority also shall “develop and analyze other pertinent initiatives and policies” designed to increase access to affordable insurance.
The health policy authority is to consider the recommendations of its advisory committees in preparing its recommendations.
The plans prepared by the health policy authority shall serve the following goals:
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Financing health care in a way that is “equitable, seamless and sustainable for consumers, providers, purchasers and government.”
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Promote “market-based” solutions that encourage fiscal and individual responsibility.
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Protect the health care safety net.
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Facilitate pooling and purchasing of health insurance.
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Facilitate access by small businesses and individuals.
The bill also instructs the health policy authority to find possible public funding, including Medicaid waivers through the federal Deficit Reduction Act and the federal “health insurance flexibility and accountability demonstration initiative.”
It also requires the authority to work with the state insurance commissioner to analyze the potential for reinsurance and state subsidies for reinsurance as ways to reduce price volatility in the small group market.
Steering Committee chairman Joe Tilghman told fellow committee members that the health policy authority would pursue the course of action set out for it by the new SB 309 even if the bill fails to win full legislative approval.
“But that doesn”t mean we don”t care about this,” Tilghman said. “It sends a very powerful signal,” if legislators approve it, letting Kansans know policymakers in Topeka are serious about major health care reform.
Health insurance lobbyists who fought the original SB 309 told members of the Senate Public Health and Welfare that they now favor the bill. There were no opponents.
The Senate committee approved the new language without question or comment.
-Mike Shields is a staff writer for KHI News Service, which specializes in coverage of health issues facing Kansans. He can be reached at
mshields@khi.org
or at 785-233-5443, ext. 123.