Health care implementation bill fails in committee

Editor’s note: Roby Brock, with our content partner Talk Business, wrote this report. He can be reached at [email protected]

House Insurance and Commerce committee members failed on Friday (Mar. 25) to pass a bill to allow Arkansas control of federal health care reform despite amendments to mollify opponents’ concerns.

On a 10-7 roll call vote, HB 2138 by Rep. Fred Allen, D-Little Rock, failed. It needed 11 votes to pass the committee. The vote split along party lines with Rep. Keith Ingram, D-West Memphis, the only present member to abstain. Rep. Jonathan Barnett, R-Siloam Springs, and Rep. Bobby Pierce, D-Sheridan, were not in attendance.

Ingram told Talk Business after the vote that he "wasn’t prepared to vote on it" today.

HB 2138 outlines how Arkansas regulators would structure rate reviews and create insurance exchanges required by the new federal health care law. State officials contend they are under a January 2013 deadline to show progress towards implementing aspects of the new law and they need regulatory authority meet that date. Without state control, they argue that federal administrators will set Arkansas’ health exchange and rate review rules.

Arkansas officials have obtained about $2 million in federal grants for planning purposes.

Opponents of the measure have argued that the state can wait until the federal courts rule on the constitutionality of the health care law before moving further forward.

Two amendments added to the bill this week included a provision to halt all planning on the state’s health care implementation if the Supreme Court declares the federal law unconstitutional. A second amendment delayed any future spending beyond current grant money until Nov. 15, 2011 or "unless approved by all appropriate legislative bodies." It still allowed the state to pursue future federal funding.

Arkansas Insurance Commissioner Jay Bradford, who has advocated for state control, said 80% of the rules and regulations to implement health care reform have not been promulgated at the federal level. He wanted regulatory authority through the Insurance Commission to be able to adapt.

"We all know that there are going to be some dramatic changes at the federal level," Bradford said. "That’s why we wanted to try to give us flexibility."

Bradford said "at least 45 states" have accepted planning grant money like Arkansas.

The bill’s defeat will not stop the implementation of federal health care reform in Arkansas, Bradford said. He contends that the federal government will now dictate Arkansas’ rules unless the bill is resurrected.

"It would appear that the will of the state legislature is for the federal government to control Arkansans’ health care," he said after the meeting.

Opponents of the bill and federal health care reform in attendance at today’s meeting cheered the vote.

Teresa Oelke, with Americans for Prosperity’s Arkansas chapter, disagreed with Bradford’s assessment and said there is still time for the state implementation to be considered in interim study.

"As long as the state shows progress towards an exchange – and we have time to do that – it doesn’t have to be rushed through. We should look at it this summer and have input from a diverse number of people," she argued.