HOUSE COMMITTEE ON

AUDIT & HUMAN SERVICES BUDGET REFORM

January 29, 2003 Hearing Room 50

3:00 PM Tapes 10 - 11

MEMBERS PRESENT: Rep. Ben Westlund, Chair

Rep. Steve March, Vice-Chair

Rep. Susan Morgan, Vice-Chair

Rep. Alan Bates

Rep. Jeff Kruse

GUEST MEMBERS: Rep. Billy Dalto

Rep. Gordon Anderson

Rep. Laurie Monnes-Anderson

Rep. Carolyn Tomei

MEMBER EXCUSED: Rep. Randy Miller

Rep. Jeff Merkley

STAFF PRESENT: Rick Berkobien, Committee Administrator

Kelly Fuller, Committee Assistant

ISSUES HEARD: Informational Meeting

Rocky King, Insurance Pool Governing Board

“Health Insurance Resource Manual 2003”

These minutes are in compliance with Senate and House Rules. Only text enclosed in quotation marks reports a speaker’s exact words. For complete contents, please refer to the tapes.

TAPE/#	Speaker		Comments
TAPE 10, A
005		Chair Westlund	Introduces Rocky King of the Insurance Pool Governing Board and opens the informational meeting.
INFORMATIONAL MEETING
010		King	Introduces himself and begins the presentation.
180		Rep. Kruse	Asks if one could have a private sector plan that covers everything and then have OMIP.
188		King	Explains the issues about having both insurances and continues presentation.
225		Chair Westlund	Asks what the difference is from the first bullet and the second Bullet in (EXHIBIT A 1/28/03)
240		Rep. March	Asks what are the limits on pre-existing conditions.
248		King	Answers the question about pre-existing conditions and continues presentation.
284		Rep. Kruse	Asks for the dollar figures on moving from three to two.
300		King	Answers question to the best of his knowledge and will get more information later. Shared an example. Continues with age rating only.
399		Chair Westlund	Asks for clarification on a figure that was stated previously.
405		King	Gives clarification, and continues
TAPE 11, A
106		Rep. Monnes Anderson	Asks if he can describe the ERISA Waiver.
115		King	Give a description of the waiver and continues.
129		Rep. Morgan	Makes a comment that this is then killing the employer mandate.
131		King	Answers and continues.
152		Berkobien	Asks if he is going to go over how this shift in occurring.
155		King	Comments that he will get to that soon and continues.
186		Chair Westlund	Asks questions on the chart in (EXHIBIT A 1/28/03).
190		King	Elaborates and continues.
208		Rep. March	Asks questions about HMO’s. Are they able to control utilization and therefore keep the costs down
216		King	Refers to Rep. Bates to answer the question.
218		Rep. Bates	Answers question about the HMO and keeping costs down.
240		Chair Westlund	Asks if conventional is another word for commercial.
250		Rep. Kruse	Asks if we wiped out mandates would idemntity be a valuable product?.
252		King	Answers and makes additional comments about indemnity plans.
265		Chair Westlund	Asks if a PPO is a preferred provider organization?
267		King	Yes that is true.
270		Rep. Bates	Elaborates on his knowledge on PPO’s.
289		Chair Westlund	Makes additional comments.
291		Berkobien	In 1996 we saw a fall of HMO’s, asks if this trend continuing.
310		King	Gave his opinion about the current HMO’s out there. Continues presentation.
362		King	Turn over is a huge complicating factor in this whole thing.
365		Chair Westlund	Asks how long on average, does it take for an employee to research new insurance.
391		King	Describes how the system works in Oregon currently.
392		Chair Westlund	Asks if he can have this kind of information within a day.
395		King	Elaborates on new technology, that makes the process faster.
398		Chair Westlund	Asks if the rate that you pay the agent front loaded.
		King	Responds to the questions.
TAPE 10, B
010		Chair Westlund	Talks more about Agency commissions.
022		King	Gives his information about Agency commissions.
036		Rep. Bates	Small employers barriers against them.
050		King	Elaborates on the small group market verses the large group market.
058		Rep. March	Asks if these factors are specifically controlled for higher wages and what variable would fall out as being sectioned out.
071		King	Responds to the question on higher wages.
199		Chair Westlund	Asks what period of growth there is going from 4% to 45% just going straight to OMIP.
203		King	Answers and continues presentation.
210		Rep. March	Asks question about rejection rates.
213		King	Replies that there is no cost for that.
223		Rep. March	Comments that you just said that the real rejection rates are much higher and we are giving this credit where the rates are being kept artificially low.
225		King	We agree with you and will look into that. He continues presentation.
234		Rep. Bates	Asks for an OMIP assessment definition.
255		King	Gives a quick review of an OMIP assessment. Comments that we will cover that at tomorrow’s meeting.
263		Rep. Monnes Anderson	Asks if those funds have a lot in them or do the rates go up.
315		King	If you wait till tomorrow, I will get this all laid out
376		Chair Westlund	Asks if it is 200 a month for an individual in OMIP.
378		Rep. Bates	Comments that it is high risk
380		Chair Westlund	If it is $200/month , 2500 per year for a high risk individual.
387		King	Explains the costs.
390		Chair Westlund	Makes comments that he would like everyone to be in the meeting at 3:00. Meeting adjourned at 4:32 PM.

EXHIBIT SUMMARY