SENATE COMMITTEE ON HEALTH POLICY

February 6, 2003 Hearing Room B

1:00 pm Tapes 14 - 15

MEMBERS PRESENT: Sen. Bill Morrisette, Chair

Sen. Bill Fisher, Vice-Chair

Sen. John Minnis

Sen. Charles Starr

Sen. Vicki Walker

MEMBER EXCUSED: Sen. Frank Shields

STAFF PRESENT: Marjorie Taylor, Administrator

Saranelle Allen, Committee Assistant

MEASURE/ISSUES HEARD: Informational Meeting

Overview of Family Health Insurance Assistance Program

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 14, A
005	Chair Morrisette	Opens informational meeting at 1:09 pm.
INFORMATIONAL MEETING
Overview of Family Health Insurance Assistance Program
008	Rocky King	Administrator for the Insurance Pool Governing Board, gives an overview of the Family Health Insurance Assistance Program with presentation materials recently prepared for Representative Ben Westlund’s committee (EXHIBIT A).
126	Sen. Walker	Expresses appreciation for all the work done in preparing the book.
130	King	Starts review on Section 15, page 2, Insurance Pool Governing Board (IPGB).
	King	Relates they are receiving 1600 incoming calls a week on queries for insurance information. States the recent loss of programs has increased the phone load.
	Chair Morrisette	Asks about the success of referrals.
	King	Replies that he has no statistics, but could check with the marketing group.
239	King	Reviews Family Health Insurance Assistance Program (FHIAP), starting on page 28.
	Sen. Minnis	Asks if fast food workers on minimum wage are receiving any sort of health coverage.
288	King	Replies that it is usually minimal.
310	Sen. Minnis	Asks questions on FHIAP enrollment.
	King	Replies that approximately 25,000 are on the FHIAP, with two roads to go down, an individual program or a group based plan.
Tape 15, A
084	King	Reviews FHIAP eligibility and income guidelines (EXHIBIT A, Section 15, pages 29 and 30).
131	King	Reviews group and individual plans and states benchmarks and benefits are changing all the time. States the challenge is to stay ahead of the increase on the benchmark (EXHIBIT A, Section 15, page 31).
194	King	Comments on issues on eligibility and the process required to obtain past year’s income tax information.
224	King	Reviews reverse disparity between adult private versus public-sector health care benefits and subsidy problems.
340	King	Reviews enrollment numbers.
Tape 14, B
020	Sen. Minnis	Relates the small business owner’s frustration on how and where to go to get health coverage for employees. Suggests more employers would offer insurance if they had easy access to information.
	King	Advises that he is currently working with employers in the state to supply insurance information.
	Sen. Minnis	Suggests an incentive for small business firms would be helpful to insure more insurance information goes out to employees.
108	Chair Morrisette	Suggests development of other ways to provide health insurance information to employers.
	King	States that documents are sent out to new employers monthly.
	Sen. Walker	States imminent problem of current funding shortages impacting medication for people in the transplant program.
	King	Expresses concern over program problems.
239	Sen. Minnis	Compliments King on the comprehensive presentation.
	King	States that boosting the economy is the real answer to improving insurance costs.
310	Chair Morrisette	Asks Rocky to craft a mechanism for implementing a rainy day plan.
	Chair Morrisette	Adjourns meeting at 2:35 pm.

EXHIBIT SUMMARY

A – Overview of Family Health Insurance Assistance Program, (Oversized) Health

Insurance Resource Manual – 2003, Rocky King, 150+ pp.