House Status:
Senate Status:
Senate Status:
Minutes for HB2054 - Committee on Insurance
Short Title
Providing for fully-insured association health plans.
Minutes Content for Mon, Jan 28, 2019
Chairperson Vickrey opened the hearing on HB 2054.
Mark Dugan testified in support of the bill. He said there were just under 60,000 companies in Kansas with less than 100 employees. He said these small companies and the self-employed struggle to find affordable health insurance. He said the association health plans and the short-term health plan legislation contained in HB 2054 and related bills would give businesses the ability to provide affordable insurance for their workers, would eliminate rules that ban owners from joining these plans and protect persons who buy the plans with strong financial safeguards. (Attachment 3).
Kevin Robertson testified in support of the bill. He said they previously had a self-funded health plan but it failed. He said the dental practices in the state were small and health insurance pools for their members and their employees were costly. The bill and the related bills would allow their association to offer less risky, full-insured health plans to their dentist members, dental practice employees and their families (Attachment 4).
Mr. Robertson proposed an amendment to page 1, line 23, by deleting "through a trust established November 1, 1985," as it refered to a VEBA trust no longer in existence.
Sunee Mickle testified in support of the bill. She said Blue Cross and Blue Shield had been approached by several associations wanting to offer their members high-quality affordable health plan coverage with the same regulatory and economic advantages usually only available from larger employers. Currently, there are few options available. The bill would allow the small associations the same affordable health opportunity as larger corporations. Further, these association health plans cannot deny coverage or inflate rates based upon pre-existing health conditions (Attachment 5).
Jason Watkins testified in support of the bill. He said the number one concern the Chamber heard from organizations was the need for affordable health care. He gave an example of a small web-development company that lost employees and a partner due to not having access to health care coverage. He said the Wichita Chamber has 1,210 members that employ fewer than 50 people and their firms cannot afford insurance plans (Attachment 6).
Kristi Brown testified in support of the bill. She said over 80 percent of Kansas Chamber members consisted of businesses that have less than 10 employees. The member firms have struggled for years to provide low-cost health coverage and it has become more and more difficult to provide insurance for their employees (Attachment 7).
Curtis Sneden provided written testimony in support of the bill. He said the Topeka Chamber had nearly 1,000 members in Topeka. The bill, along with the related bills, created a tremendous solution to one of the members' most pressing issue: how to make sure employees and their families get the health coverage they need (Attachment 8).
Scott Schneider provided written testimony in support of the bill. He said the restaurant industry employed 137,000 people in the state. Nearly one-half of every dollar spent on food in the state was through one of their member businesses. Small businesses with 2-50 employees desperately needed access to insurance and healthcare benefits. He provided a document that detailed their industry's insurance benefits through the Restaurant and Hospitality Association Benefit Trust (Attachment 9)
Ken White provided written testimony in support of the bill. He said for a year he had been discussing with insurance agents how a trade organization such as his could provide affordable group health insurance plans to their members. He detailed four items he requested be considered that would make the legislation beneficial to his organization (Attachment 10).
The members asked questions of the proponents, including: rating information and what would happen if the bills were not passed. Revisor Ma and the proponents answered the committee's questions.
Chairperson Vickrey asked if there were any opponents to the bill.
Courtney Eiterich testified in opposition of the bill. She said after she developed Multiple Sclerosis she had to leave her job and find insurance in the open market only to discover she wasn't eligible for medical insurance. She said the bill would be a low cost alternative to small businesses, but warned one would get what they paid for. For those with chronic health conditions, the "devil is in the details." She had concerns that without all the details being ironed out, there might be protections under the old rules that would be lost with the new rules. She was concerned that healthy people would leave the marketplace pool and obtain coverage under an association plan leaving only unhealthy people in the marketplace pool. That would make their cost of coverage rise (Attachment 11).
Jordan Feuerborn provided written testimony in opposition of the bill. She said they have opposed federal initiatives to encourage the growth of Association Health Plans (AHP) because: they promote products that do not provide comprehensive coverage, could damage the non-AHP individual and small group markets, and would inadequately address issues of plan solvency and regulatory oversight (Attachment 12).
Dana Bacon provided written testimony in opposition of the bill. He said their concerns were that further deregulation of AHPs could result in the proliferation of lower-quality coverage options, and could destabilize the individual market as healthier individuals leave. He added any efforts to increase access to AHPs must be matched by careful state-level regulation in order not erode or remove oversight entirely (Attachment 13).
Lee Modesitt testified the Insurance Department is neutral on the bill. He said neither the Commissioner nor the department intended to weigh in on policy decisions. He provided documentation which outlined the different types of AHPs (Attachment 14).
Will Larson provided written testimony that the Kansas Association of Insurance Agents was neutral on the bill. He said the association's governmental affairs committee had not had an opportunity to review the bills and determine what position, if any, they should take (Attachment 15).
Chairperson Vickrey asked if there were any additional conferees. There were none.
The chairperson asked if the members had questions for the opponents and neutral conferees. Questions were asked and answered regarding: oversight, fees, and what would happen with the state rules if the federal health rules were rolled back.
There being no further questions, Chairperson Vickrey closed the hearing on HB 2054.
