Monday, February 18, 2008
Governor Rolls Out Key Health Care Initiatives
Proposals Aimed at Increasing Access to Health Care and Lowering Health Care Costs
Des Moines – Today, Governor Chet Culver rolled out key health care initiatives aimed at increasing access to health care and reducing health care costs.
“I believe access to quality health care is the right of all Iowans,” said Governor Culver. “Here in Iowa, we must expand access to health care, lower health care costs and work toward the goal of giving all Iowans access to the same quality health care guaranteed to elected officials.”
Last month Governor Culver proposed a budget which expanded health care to 7,500 Iowa children. Today, the Governor
introduced additional, specific health care legislation aimed at expanding health care access and reducing costs:
- COVERING PRE-EXISTING CONDITIONS: Under current Iowa law, individuals leaving the group health insurance market can be underwritten when entering the individual market. For people who have complied with the system of maintaining health insurance coverage through a group policy (and have coverage for all types of illnesses and conditions) it is a matter of fairness to allow them to move to the individual market without any preexisting condition waiting periods or denials of coverage.
- COVERAGE FOR DEPENDENT CHILDREN: Health insurance carriers in Iowa have different dependent age restrictions and requirements. Because these dependents are already on the policy and have been factored into the rating system, maintaining these unmarried, young adults through the age of 25 will provide them with coverage for a time period that may allow them to move into their own coverage options at a later date either individually or through an employer plan.
- LONG-TERM CARE INSURANCE: Under current Iowa law, rate increases for long-term care insurance must be pre-approved and actuarially justified. Governor Culver is proposing legislation to cap long-term care insurance rates at 12 percent per year to protect aging policyholders. The Governor’s legislation does give the Insurance Commissioner the right to waive the 12 percent cap in light of financial conditions of the insurer or certain conditions within the marketplace.
- ELECTRONIC MEDICAL RECORDS: The key to measuring quality and cost of services within the health care provider environment is a single system for storing and exchanging information. Governor Culver is proposing legislation to create an electronic medical records council to develop a statewide Iowa health information plan by January 2009. The specific principles of this legislation include ensuring the plan: 1) Is patient centered and market driven; 2) Is based on approved standards developed from approved stakeholders; 3) Protects the privacy of consumers and the security and confidentiality of all health information; 4) Promotes interoperability; and 5) Guarantees the accuracy, completeness and uniformity of data.
“While I am optimistic we will eventually see some progress on this issue in Washington over the coming years, I believe there are some things we can do at the state level to make it easier for Iowa families to get quality health care,” continued Governor Culver.
“I want to commend the legislative health care commission for their hard work on this important issue. Working together, we have been able to dramatically expand health care for Iowa kids, and I am confident we can once again work in a bipartisan way to pass these common sense measures to expand health care access and lower costs.”