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The committee spent last week fine tuning the framework it had created over the first six weeks of the legislative session. Relying heavily on work produced by noted Emory University expert Dr. Kenneth Thorpe, the committee voted 9-2 to approve the measure. Catamount Health would eventually provide coverage to 22,000 of the state’s more than 64,000 uninsured who voluntarily enroll in the program, which the bill directs be administered by a private company through a bid issued through the state’s Office of Vermont Health Access. OVHA also administers the state’s Medicaid program. The price tag for the initiative is predicted to be $132.2 million over a four year period with $66.2 million of that total to come from state revenues and the remainder from the federal government. The House Ways and Means Committee has scheduled this week to review a revenue proposal to fund H.861.The Ways and Means proposal would raise the cigarette tax by 60 cents on July 1, raising the total tax to $1.79 a pack. That tax would raise $11.7 million the first year and then decline slowly in following years. The proposal also calls for tapping into tobacco settlement funds to raise the remaining money necessary to fund the plan. Governor James Douglas has earmarked those same tobacco settlement funds for a new college tuition assistance program designed to encourage Vermont students to stay in Vermont. The committee hopes to make a decision on the proposal and conclude its work quickly before sending the bill along to the Appropriations Committee, its last committee stop before a full House vote next week. The tax writing committee has devoted time throughout the session to gaining an understanding of the state’s health care financing arrangements. Members of the House Health Care Committee say they will now turn their attention to creating another health care reform bill(s) consisting of issues that the committee uncovered during construction of H.861 but didn’t include in that proposal. Meanwhile, the Senate Health and Welfare Committee completed work on a so-called “consensus bill,” which is a companion bill to the House health care reform bill. The consensus bill (S.310) contains a series of measures identified before the session by the administration and legislature as having strong bipartisan support. The consensus bill calls for healthy lifestyle insurance premium discounts; creation of a grant fund for communities to create wellness programs; a reporting system to provide consumers with information about hospital infection rates, health care price and quality; administrative simplification in health insurance; and a loan repayment program to recruit and train medical providers in underserved geographic and specialty areas. And as both chambers scramble to vote bills out of committee to meet deadlines to ensure consideration by the other chamber, the Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to complete work this week on a bill (S.198) to reduce medical malpractice litigation. The proposal would provide legal protection for medical professionals who say they are sorry for mistakes, and allows hospitals to implement a “SorryWorks” program. 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 wish to discontinue receiving these updates or know of anyone else who would like to receive it, please call Kathy Parry or send an e-mail to webmail@bcbsvt.com |
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