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House Republican leaders held a State House press conference calling for adoption of Medicaid solutions proposed by Governor James Douglas in his annual budget address the previous week, and demanding that the legislature consider the administration’s incremental proposal to address the uninsured this year. The administration reform proposal was introduced in the House as H.102. The Democratic majority in the House and Senate consider the Medicaid deficit and funding problems as part of an overall health care system problem and their strategy is to take the first year of the biennium to build momentum for a broader reform discussion next year. The Republican strategy is to force discussion of Medicaid and the uninsured this year, preserving an overall incremental approach to health care issues. The administration’s plan for Medicaid contains a series of steps that were described in last week’s Legislative Report. The administration’s uninsured proposal contained in H.102 is similar to his proposal last year, and proposes tax credits for uninsured small businesses with less than 25 employees, premium and deductible assistance to uninsured low and moderate income Vermonters, healthy lifestyle discounts, a reinsurance program for the troubled individual market, and consumer price and quality information. Also last week, the Senate gave its approval to a plan to allow Vermonters to purchase prescription drugs from Canada, the U.K. and Ireland through an Illinois-based program called I-SaverRx. The House Health Care Committee is working on its version of the bill and plans to begin its markup this week. The Senate bill and House drafts require health plans to participate in the reimportation plan. BCBSVT is scheduled to testify before the House committee this week. New Bills H.62 Introduced by Representative Botzow of Pownal and others This bill proposes to authorize a study and report on the insurance problems of farmers and the potential solutions to those problems to be performed by the agency of agriculture, food and markets with the cooperation of BISHCA and the department of labor and industry. H.98 Introduced by Representative Grad of Moretown and others This bill would allow naturopathic physicians providing treatment within their scope of practice to be reimbursed for providing medically necessary health care services that are covered by a health insurance plan. H.96 Introduced by Representative LaVoie of Swanton and others This bill proposes to permit a parent or legal guardian to consent to drug or alcohol testing or counseling for a minor under the age of 16. If consent is given by the parent or legal guardian, the consent of the minor is not necessary to authorize the testing or counseling. H.102 Introduced by Representative Koch and others This bill proposes to: (1) offer premium and deductible assistance to uninsured low and moderate income Vermonters; (2) create a reinsurance program to lower nongroup health insurance premiums; (3) establish a health insurance tax credit to enable small businesses to offer health insurance to their employees; (4) permit health insurance companies to offer discounts to members and subscribers who make healthy choices; and (5) establish a consumer health care price and quality information system to empower individuals to make economically sound and medically appropriate decisions. S.49 Introduced by the Committee on Finance This bill proposes to require the secretary of administration to join the I-SaveRx prescription drug program launched in Illinois so that all Vermont residents can purchase lower cost prescription drugs from Europe and Canada. For more information on legislative proposals, visit the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Vermont website at www.bcbsvt.com or call Leigh Tofferi at (802) 223-6131 or Kathy Parry at (802) 371-3205. If you would prefer to receive these updates by FAX or e-mail, wish to discontinue receiving these updates or know of anyone else who would like to receive it, please call Kathy Parry at the above number or send an e-mail to webmail@bcbsvt.com |
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