Advocates speak up in Exchange Board meeting

Yesterday, advocates spoke out during the CT Health Insurance Exchange Board meeting to protest the lack of consumer voices on the Board. The Board has been widely criticized for lacking any voting consumer members, despite federal regulations that call for consumers to comprise a majority of voting members. Several members of the Board called for more transparency, better communication and regular opportunities for public comment. Jeanette DeJesus, Special Advisor to the Governor on Health Reform, expressed support for the protestors. The Board is quickly staffing up and expects to have most of the important operational pieces in place by the next meeting scheduled for March 15^th. Advocates have called for legislation, effective immediately, to add consumer and small business votes to the Board before the next meeting to ensure stakeholder input into those critical decisions. CT is among a small minority of states moving this quickly to establish exchanges; most states have not yet decided whether to run their exchange themselves or let the federal government do it. The Board has hired a public relations firm to collect input from stakeholder groups including consumers, brokers, small businesses, insurers and providers. The consultants will be holding meetings across the state in the next week.  Those meetings were to be invitation-only but Board members at the meeting insisted in opening them to the public.

Ellen Andrews

New press on insurance exchange’s problems

The Hartford Business Journal has published a series of articles on the problems and challenges facing CT’s insurance exchange.

Mercer recommends letting CBIA run small business exchange

Advocates oppose CBIA role in exchange

Exchange having trouble finding a CEO

Survey finds CT employers cool to exchange

Insurance public hearing to add consumers and small businesses to insurance exchange board

Today, the Insurance and Real Estate Committee held a public hearing on HB-5013 – a very weak bill that would have added only one, narrowly defined consumer advocate and one small business person to the exchange but not before July 1st. It also would have given the State Health Care Advocate a vote But again not until July 1^st – safely after all the important decisions have been made. The Board has been criticized for having three members representing insurance interests and no voting consumer representatives. The Board is now choosing a CEO and a team of other senior management (at eye-popping salaries) and considering whether to cede the small business exchange to CBIA. Many people, including consumers, advocates, brokers, small businesses, providers and labor representatives, spoke to the need for at least two consumer reps and two more small business people on the Board. Speakers also emphasized that the CEO being hired should be independent of the insurance industry, to help build some credibility for the exchange among the people who will rely on it for affordable coverage in 2014 when the individual mandate becomes effective. Speakers also strongly opposed allowing CBIA to run any part of the exchange. CBIA has lobbied against state and national reform in the past; handing the exchange to opponents of reform invites failure. Speakers also asked for the legislature to clarify that the Ethics Commission enforces conflict of interest provisions in the original law, specifically excluding Board members affiliated with insurance companies.

Ellen Andrews

CT Health Reform Dashboard -- 10.4% progress to date

How is CT doing reforming our broken health system? Are we making smart choices? Are we taking advantage of opportunities? Having trouble keeping up with the many moving parts? Visit our CT Health Reform Dashboard at www.cthealthreform.org

Exchange Board seeking nominations for advisory groups

The CT Health Insurance Exchange is soliciting nominations for four advisory committees – health plan benefits and qualifications, small business, consumer experience and outreach, and navigators. The committees are purely advisory to the Board and will “serve to assist the Exchange in establishing policy, refining goals, delineating functions, and providing on-going program evaluation.” The committees will not have voting rights or formal input into policy and will only serve to advise the Board. Committee chairs will be chosen by the Lieutenant Governor. If you are interested in serving, descriptions of the committees, Board members already chairing and populating committees, and a nomination form are online. Nominations are due February 3^rd.

CT Insurance Exchange seeks comment – sort of

Criticized for spending too much time in secret executive session and insurance industry dominance, the CT Insurance Exchange is finally seeking public comment – sort of. They commissioned a report from Mercer to serve as the foundation for policy decisions in designing the exchange. The report covers a multitude of areas – CT’s insurance market, products currently offered to individuals and small businesses, and demographics and income profile of CT’s uninsured to name a few. The report is 408 pages. The Exchange is soliciting public comment. But you have only a week to read and digest it, do the research to identify gaps and biases, and submit comments which are limited to three pages. There is no commitment or even a discussion of how (or whether) our hard work in commenting will be used or even read.

If this is what passes for public stakeholder input, the Exchange is out of touch.

Update – The comment period has been extended to just under two weeks.

Ellen Andrews

Advocates protest at last week’s Exchange Board meeting

Last Thursday’s Board meeting was attended by dozens of consumer advocates protesting insurance domination of the Board’s membership and the absence of consumer voices. The advocates wore Band Aids over their mouths and stood with signs protesting the lack of even one voting consumer member; federal regulations say the majority of voting members should represent consumers and small businesses.