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Committee Looks to Advance Health Care Bill

Posted on: Friday, 10 March 2006, 00:00 CST

By JAKE STUMP

DAILY MAIL CAPITOL BUREAU

A joint legislative committee hopes today to push ahead a final version of Gov. Manchin's health care bill that targets an estimated 250,000 West Virginians who lack health coverage.

The main hang-up between the House of Delegates and the Senate is how many officials will sit on an advisory council addressing health care needs in the state.

The House version of the bill had 15 members sitting on the Inner- Agency Health Council, but the Senate thought that was too many and has reduced it to two people - the Health Care Authority director and the insurance commissioner.

Now a joint committee of five senators and five delegates may expand it to five members, adding the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Resources, the director of the Public Employees Insurance Agency and the director of the Children's Health Insurance Program.

The bill includes two key proposals: A pilot program that authorizes clinics to offer primary and preventive health services to subscribers for as little as $30 a month; and a plan to urge insurers to provide basic health coverage for $99 a month.

Those main objectives have remained intact, said Sen. Roman Prezioso, D-Marion, who heads the Senate side of the committee.

"The governor's health bill has never been in jeopardy," Prezioso said. "Most of the devil is in the detail. When the House sent the initial bill over with a 15-member council, we questioned it. We want a clear, concise process that assembles the data."

The Inner-Agency Health Council will report to the DHHR on a quarterly basis, Prezioso said. "They'll come up with incentives for cost containment and give us ideas of how we can finance public health in West Virginia," he said.

One goal will be to figure out ways to reimburse doctors and hospitals for tending to patients without health coverage, he said.

The House originally passed the health care bill Feb. 27 before sending it to the Senate. Since then, it has been referred back to the House then to the Senate and to the House again.

Legislators hope that the bill will provide some sort of health coverage for all state residents by 2010.

"A young person probably can't afford $300 a month for insurance," said Delegate Mike Hall, R-Putnam, a member of the joint committee. "But for $100 a month, that gives you a guaranteed visit."

Hall said the 15 members of the expert panel proposed by the House would include health and insurance professionals outside of state government. "When you're inside government, you tend to view things a certain way," Hall said. "Our panel would've had people from the private sector with a different insight."

Contact writer Jake Stump at jakestump@dailymail.com or 348- 4842.

But he said he understood why the governor and the Senate rejected the idea. It would've created a new bureaucracy that could have cost the state $400,000.

"There's enough money in the system for universal health care," Hall said. "We just need to find a way to balance it all out."

Source: Charleston Daily Mail

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