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Health Bill Clears Hurdle; Senate-House Conferees Reach Compromise on Plan

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

By Phil Kabler

philk@wvgazette.com

After spending six weeks in limbo, a new version of a bill that could put the state on the path to providing health coverage for all West Virginians emerged from a House-Senate conference committee Wednesday night.

"I think the end justified the means," Senate Health and Human Resources Chairman Roman Prezioso said of the long-delayed bill (HB4021). "We've finally come to a consensus."

The new bill includes Gov. Joe Manchin's original proposals for pilot projects to extend primary care access and bare-bones health insurance coverage to uninsured residents.

It also includes plans to make more children eligible for the state Children's Health Insurance Program, and a more ambitious House proposal to have a panel of experts come up with ways to provide full health coverage to the state's estimated 245,000 uninsured residents.

As originally envisioned by the House, a 15-member panel of experts would have been appointed to set benchmarks for state health care, including assuring at least some health coverage for all uninsured West Virginians by 2010.

Senators balked at the proposal, saying it could create a new and potentially expensive state bureaucracy.

In the compromise, two existing state agencies - the Health Care Authority and the Insurance Commission - would oversee the process. As revised Wednesday, the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Resources, director of the state Public Employees Insurance Agency, and the CHIP director would also serve on the panel.

Prezioso, D-Marion, said the Senate never opposed the idea of setting up a panel to determine the best options to provide health coverage to the uninsured.

"We just didn't have any input or dialogue," he said. "Our intent from the very beginning was to go into conference."

With the compromise approved Wednesday, the bill could pass the House and Senate and be headed to the governor for his approval as early as today.

For a month after the Senate rejected their version of the bill, House Health and Human Resources Committee members heard testimony from health-care and medical professionals who said the lack of health coverage results in billions of dollars in care that is shifted to those with insurance, and results in about 18,000 unnecessary deaths nationwide each year of people who delayed seeking medical care.

As adopted Wednesday, the bill includes the two proposals Manchin made in his State of the State address to improve access to health care:

* A pilot project for clinics in the state to provide check-ups and other primary care services to subscribers for as little as $30 a month.

* An initiative to encourage insurers to underwrite bare-bones health coverage for as little as $99 a month.

The agreement also includes a Senate proposal to increase eligibility for the state's CHIP program for children from families with incomes of up to 300 percent of federal poverty level, or about $60,000 for a family of four. Currently, the cutoff for CHIP coverage is 200 percent of the poverty level.

That plan initially is expected to insure about 3,000 more children, at a cost of just over $1 million.

To contact staff writer Phil Kabler, use e-mail or call 348- 1220.

Source: Charleston Gazette, The

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