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Health-Care Fight Looms: Senate Rejects House Bill for Governor S Lesser Plan

Posted on: Saturday, 28 January 2006, 12:00 CST

By Tom Searls, The Charleston Gazette, W.Va.

Jan. 28--State senators set the stage for a showdown with the House of Delegates over health care Friday, stripping the House's proposed universal health-care package and replacing it with Gov. Joe Manchin's two proposed bare-bones health plans.

"We haven't had time to digest the House bill," said Senate Health and Human Resources Chairman Roman Prezioso, D-Marion.

The Senate had the House bill (HB4021) and its two pieces of health-care legislation (SB162 and SB164) all up for a second reading, when legislation can be amended on the Senate floor. Prezioso proposed a "strike and insert" amendment that stripped out all the House language and replaced it with the language of the two Senate proposals.

"These are exactly the governor's bills, as proposed," Prezioso told his colleagues.

The amendment was approved and the new bill should be up for passage in the Senate on Monday, setting the stage for the second showdown over health-care legislation between the two chambers in the past three years.

Prezioso said the Senate will use the new bill "as a vehicle" to begin negotiations with House leaders and Manchin "to come to some kind of compromise."

One of Manchin's two proposals passed by the Senate committee would allow up to eight clinics in the state to offer basic preventive and primary care to uninsured residents for a monthly fee. The other would allow the state Insurance Commissioner to set rules allowing insurance firms to offer minimum, bare-bones insurance benefits for $99 a month.

The House legislation included those provisions, but also created a commission to oversee state health care. If the state met certain benchmarks, it could lead to universal health care for all state residents by 2010. Senators eliminated those provisions.

Prezioso said the $99-per-month plan would involve no state funds and is geared toward helping the "working poor" whose companies do not offer health insurance coverage. It does not allow a business currently offering health insurance to employees to sign up, or to drop its current coverage, without a one-year waiting period.

"This is not a Cadillac program," Prezioso said.

Under the Senate version, the pilot clinic program would be administered by the state Health Care Authority. It would provide basic doctor visits, check-ups and preventive care to people who otherwise would not seek health care.

Supporters have said the monthly cost is expected to run between $30 and $80 a month.

"It wouldn't be considered insurance," Prezioso said.

The legislation clarifies that such clinics are not to be considered health insurance under West Virginia law. The Insurance Commission has ruled that a Wheeling physician offering such a prepaid plan is an insurance plan and should be regulated by the commission.

Two years ago, Prezioso was placed under heavy pressure after the House passed its version of the Pharmaceutical Availability and Affordability Act. It included tough proposals to cap prescription drug costs.

The bill languished in Prezioso's committee until a compromise was reached late in the 2003 session.

To contact staff writer Tom Searls, use e-mail or call 348-5192.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Charleston Gazette, W.Va.

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Source: The Charleston Gazette

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