Winning and Losing Health Care Bills in Sacramento at the Legislative Deadline—A Busy Week

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

• Tale of two health care committees
• Senate fails to pass bill that would license and regulate "discount" health cards while Assembly passes legislation to fill out benefits on some bare bones plans
• Bills to allow local county-run health plans to expand, compete; children's coverage, mandatory Medi-Cal managed care, benefits

By Hanh Kim Quach
Health Care Policy Coordinator
Health Access California

CALIFORNIA SENATE HEALTH COMMITTEE

The Senate Health Committee heard nearly two dozen bills on Wednesday in the final hearing before Friday’s policy committee deadline to get bills to a fiscal committee. Following is a roundup of the fate of some of the bills of interest to health and consumer advocates:

DISCOUNT CARDS:

SB 1603 (Calderon) would have directed the state Department of Managed Health Care to license and regulate so-called discount health cards, which promise consumers deep (though often unverified) discounts on medical services from a network of providers (also often unverified). Consumers purchase a list of discount providers at a cost of up to $120/month. The state is in the process of promulgating regulations to address these plans, but current state law bans them, even though some currently operate in California.

With a bipartisan mix of votes in favor and opposed, the bill failed in committee. Consumer advocates have long argued that discount medical cards claim "discounts" off a non-public price, rendering the only true value of the card unknown and/or meaningless. Additionally, surveys have shown that medical providers contacted are not even aware that they are included on many discount cards' list. Additionally, the plans often use misleading language to confuse consumers, and rely on the expectation that the consumer will not understand the difference between a discount health card and actual insurance coverage. Consumer advocates would need to see these issues resolved in order to support a regulation that would license these cards and give them the state's seal of approval.

LOCAL INITIATIVE EXPANSION:

SB 1622 (Simitian) would facilitate a statewide public insurer, connecting existing county-based health care plans to be able to offer a broader regional network of providers. This would provide a more options for existing enrollees, especially those who live in one county and work in another, and also allow these local initiatives to better compete with private health care plans. Using economies of scale, this publicly owned health plan would compete with private health plans and provide an affordable alternative for uninsured and small businesses that feel squeezed by insurance costs. This concept was part of ABx1 1 (Nunez), the omnibus health reform legislation that failed in this committee earlier this year. The bill passed.

CHILDREN’S COVERAGE: