Task Force Unveils Three Health Reform Bills at Final Meeting

Dec 16, 2008 by Elizabeth Ziegler

(KCPW News) The Utah Legislature's Health System Reform Task Force unveiled three bills at its final meeting this morning. The boldest of them answers the governor's call for an affordable insurance product. Rep. Dave Clark, the House Co-chairman of the task force, says the insurance bill is just the first in a long line of reforms.

"We are now down to the point where we have taken a great deal of information, trying to assemble it into an organized step-by-step process. This is year two," Clark says. "And the insurance bill that we talked about here is perhaps an emphasis on an industry versus a broader program. We are working with everybody; nobody is untouched. You just happened to be, somebody had to be at the head of the line."

The bill, "Health System Reform - Insurance Market" aims to expand access to private insurance by guaranteeing coverage at an affordable rate. It creates a statewide basic insurance plan, called the Utah NetCare Basic Health Plan.

But the insurance bill, and the two others presented this morning, may be amended during the legislative process, says Senate task force co-chairman Sheldon Killpack.

"The final bill may not look exactly like this. Whether it's whatever risk adjusting mechanism comes out in the final bill, there is a desire to find a way to help people find more affordable insurance in both the group markets and the individual markets. The answer can't be just government pumping more money with no accountability. We can see it hasn't worked," Killpack says.

The other two bills introduced this morning tackle insurance for employees of state contractors and the administrative process for insurance and health care providers. The latter calls for streamlining billing practices and standardizing benefit explanations.  

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