On this week’s edition of The Impact, we take a closer look at the K-12 health insurance bill that drove the Legislature into double overtime. We talk with a school employee who can’t afford to insure her family, as well as the bill’s prime sponsor, Sen. Steve Hobbs, D-Lake Stevens.

We also take a look at a number of tax changes that were adopted during session, with input from Rep. Gary Alexander (R) and Rep. Chris Reykdal (D), both of Olympia.

Tags: healthcare, insurance

I talked with Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler about the health care exchange bill that Gov. Chris Gregoire recently signed into law. It creates an online marketplace called an “exchange” where Washington residents will be able to shop for health insurance starting in January 2014, when federal health care reform comes into full effect.

Kreidler talked about what the exchange will look like for consumers, and what’s ahead if the U.S. Supreme Court rules to strike down all or part of the federal Affordable Care Act.

How will the health care exchange differ from the insurance market that’s in place now?

You’ll have ‘inside’ the exchange and ‘outside’ the exchange. Inside the exchange, it will operate like a marketplace where you can compare insurance companies in a way you that you can’t do today. There will be four levels of plans (bronze, silver, gold and platinum) that will vary depending on the cost consideration of the consumer. For example, the platinum level costs the least in out-of-pocket expenses, but it costs the most in premiums. There will be tiers outside the exchange, but it won’t be as easily comparable as within the exchange.

Can you describe what it will look like?

It’s a work in progress. It will be one where people can go to a screen, enter their income, and be able to see all of the plans that are available to them. They may chose to narrow it down and say ‘I want less out of pocket expense for what I have to pay when I go see a doctor’ or ‘I want to keep my premiums down.’ It is a comparison you can’t do in today’s market. It’s the Travelocity approach, where you can do a comparison of a particular flight and how much you want to pay for it.

In the exchange, you have the advantage of subsidies. Those will be offered to lower-income individuals all the way up to families of four with a household income of $92,000 a year. Up to that point, they could qualify from some sort of subsidy.

Will all residents be required to purchase health insurance through the exchange?

If they want a subsidy, it will be the only place they can get a subsidy. But it is open to anybody who wants to buy there. If they are paying for it themselves, they could go inside or outside the exchange. There are some advantages to buying within the exchange — you could do comparisons of plans for people who like to do their own research.

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Tags: exchange, healthcare, mike kreidler

Jessica Gao, host of The Impact, interviewed state Attorney General Rob McKenna today about the lawsuit challenging the federal health care overhaul. The Republican gubernatorial candidate joined 25 other attorneys general in the lawsuit, and says he’s opposed to the law’s mandate that requires everyone to have health insurance.

This morning, protesters gathered outside of McKenna’s office and demanded that he drop out of the lawsuit, which is currently in front of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Below is a short clip from the interview where McKenna offers his response to the protesters, saying they must be “perfectly content” with allowing the Internal Revenue Service to investigate whether or not they have health insurance. Under the law, Americans must be covered by a basic health insurance plan or pay a tax penalty starting in 2014.

The full interview will air Wednesday at 7 & 10 p.m.

Tags: healthcare, McKenna

Gov. Chris Gregoire said Wednesday the state will appeal a judge’s ruling that Washington state cannot compel pharmacies to sell emergency contraceptives such as Plan B.

Ralph’s Thriftway in Olympia and two other pharmacists first brought the suit in 2007, arguing that they should not have to dispense Plan B or other emergency contraceptives because it is against their religious beliefs. U.S. District Judge Ronald Leighton issued a ruling last month saying the state’s rules violate the constitutional rights of the pharmacists.

Gregoire said in a statement she fully supports the decision to appeal the ruling.

“Any decision that puts patients at risk by delaying or denying them lawful and lawfully prescribed medications should be carefully reviewed by a higher court,” Gregoire said.

Tags: healthcare

Several legislators held a press conference today to draw attention to what they say is an attack on women’s healthcare rights in the budget proposed by Senate Republicans and three moderate Democrats.

“This budget moves us backwards,” said Sen. Sharon Nelson, D-Seattle. The budget proposal includes a 27 percent cut in family planning grants, which help provide reproductive health education and services. It also reduces funding to the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, Nelson said.

They called for the revival of a bill requiring insurers to cover abortion services. It passed the House with a 52-46 vote, but when Republicans took control of the Senate floor using a procedural maneuver earlier this month, the bill was essentially killed — along with other non-budget bills that hadn’t yet come up for a vote.

“We must shine the light on this attack on a woman’s right to chose, ” said Rep. Laurie Jinkins, D-Tacoma. Jinkins said she believes there are enough votes for the bill in the Senate, and she wants to see it called to the floor during special session.

The group also celebrated the two-year anniversary of President Obama’s federal healthcare reform, or the Affordable Care Act. The Legislature passed a bill during regular session that helps the state implement the act, which the governor is slated to sign on Friday,  said Sen. Karen Keiser.

Meanwhile, Gov. Chris Gregoire said Tuesday that budget writers are making significant progress, and she may be open to signing more bills into law. Last week, Gregoire said she wouldn’t sign the vast majority of bills — or veto them altogether — if lawmakers didn’t make progress on budget negotiations. Since then, she’s slowed her bill signing ceremonies down to a trickle.

Tags: Budget, healthcare

Senators Karen Keiser, D-Kent, and Randi Becker, R-Eatonville, talk with host Austin Jenkins about this year’s biggest healthcare issues — from medicaid fraud to abortion insurance coverage. New episodes air Thursdays at 7 & 10 p.m.

Tags: healthcare

A controversial bill that supporters say would ensure that the state is ready to comply with President Obama’s federal health care overhaul passed the Senate with a 27-22 vote on Thursday.

The bill prepares the state for compliance with federal rules when they go into effect in 2014, laying out the process for creating a healthcare exchange — or a marketplace where state residents and small businesses will be able to shop for health insurance.

“This is critical to what we should be trying to do in this country,” said Sen. David Frockt, D-Seattle, during the floor debate.  “We can’t solve the healthcare crisis without covering people in the system.”

About 400,000 people in Washington state will gain access to healthcare insurance through the legislation, said Sen. Jim Kastama, D-Puyallup.

But Sen. Doug Ericksen, R-Ferndale, said government involvement in the insurance industry will raise costs for everyone. He said people should be given the option to buy healthcare on a private, competitive market. 

“I fear for what this will do for healthcare markets in the future,” Ericksen said.

Tags: affordable care act, healthcare

The Senate Health and Long-Term Care Committee is considering a bill aimed at putting the Affordable Care Act into place — including implementing the healthcare exchange.

“There is some real controversy here,” said Sen. Linda Evans Parlette. She said the Legislature passed a bill last year, and it seems like they shouldn’t need to pass another bill to qualify for Level 2 federal funding for the exchange.

Jonathan Seib with Gov. Chris Gregoire’s policy office said the state needs to be ready for open enrollment in October of next year — part of that requires being certified for the federal government. He said the legislation last session did not give the board the tools that it needs to be open for business by that time.

Sen. Mike Carrell asked what requirement the state must meet. “Have we, in this bill, gone beyond that and in what areas can we reduce the scope of this bill” and still qualify for funding, he asked. Seib said the bill contains components that the governor’s office believes the state needs to receive the funding. He said there are some additional aspects of the bill that allow the state to customize the exchange to this state.

Sharon Shaw, a small business owner, said healthcare should be affordable for everyone, but it’s not. “If I lost Basic Health, insurance for a family of four would cost more than my mortgage,” she said.

Eric Smiley, who owns a Seattle hair salon, said he works long hours and pays his taxes but can’t afford healthcare. “The system, as it is set up today, does not work for me … purchasing insurance is expensive and confusing,” he said, adding that the state needs an easy-to-use health insurance exchange so that small business owners and others can afford insurance.

Makini Howell, a restauranteur in Seattle, said the people at the hearing in “expensive suits” are trying to preserve the status quo. But the dozens of other regular people are there to support the exchange.

But Mel Sorenson with the Washington Association of Health Underwriters said the details of the bill matter, and some of the details in this bill are “objectionable.” He said his group is in favor of healthcare reform, but they have issues with this bill. He said his group believes that additional, cost-driving obligations to the exchange in this bill are unnecessary.

Tags: healthcare

This morning the Senate Health and Long-Term Care committee heard details about an overhaul of the healthcare benefit system for nearly 200,000 public school employees.

The proposal would consolidate the healthcare plans of 295 school districts, and include medical, dental and vision. Life insurance and long-term disability would be left to the individual school districts.

The plan could save the state an estimated about 1-2 percent of the current billion dollars that is currently spent on public school employee benefits, according to a report by the Health Care Authority.

Sen. Steve Conway said that although the cost savings was important, that’s not the only issue at hand. “What we’re trying to do is get a good product to the people who work in the school districts,” Conway said.

Randy Parr of the Washington Education Association said that they oppose any plan that would give a government board power over employee healthcare plans.

“This is a genuinely seriously subject and you are talking about 200,000 lives,” Parr said. “I hope you understand the importance and magnitude of decisions” that could affect people’s healthcare coverage, premiums and choice of doctors, Parr added.

Tags: benefits, education, healthcare, Schools

Did you catch last night’s edition of Inside Olympia? Austin Jenkins talked healthcare costs Democrats and Republicans from the House and Senate. A couple of interesting statistics: Sen. Karen Keiser said 80 percent of healthcare costs are driven by 20 percent of patients. And she said the state pays for half of all births in Washington, and far too many of those babies are delivered via C-section, which are more expensive and, Keiser says, not always necessary.

Tags: healthcare