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Minutes for HB2021 - Committee on Insurance
Short Title
Providing insurance coverage for hearing aids.
Minutes Content for Thu, Feb 9, 2017
Chairperson Vickrey opened the hearing on previously heard HB 2021
Brrad Smoot said he represented Blue Cross / Blue Shield and was opposed to both mandate bills. He described the establishment of BC/BS as a mutual insurance company processing 18.9 million claims and paying out $77.9 million a year. He opposed HB 2021 because under Kansas law, proponents must provide a cost benefit analysis but in this case it was not done. Therefore, there was nothing from the proponents explaining why hearing aid coverage was beneficial enough to be imposed on the marketplace. Further, a fiscal note showed for Kansas Employees Health Plan (SEHP). the added 2018 state employee cost would be $19,250,880 for hearing aid coverage. Mr. Smoot said their analysis showed the additional premium cost would $31.68 per contract. In conclusion, he said the question was either: 1) how much should premiums rise, or 2) what could be taken off. He noted that no one knew what would happen at the federal level as far as medical insurance and mandates (Attachment 5)
