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Romano: Will Florida again prevent health insurance regulators from saving you money?

 
Published Jan. 25, 2015

Two years ago, your state Legislature passed a law that was either remarkably foolish or remarkably cynical. Either way, it had the potential to cost you dearly.

Lawmakers decided at the time to handcuff the state insurance commissioner when it came to regulating health insurance rates. In essence, they told him not to do his job.

Their excuse was that the Affordable Care Act was just being implemented, and it would be better for the federal government to regulate insurance prices.

One hitch:

The federal government doesn't have that authority.

So, by blindfolding their own commissioner, legislators and Gov. Rick Scott basically allowed insurance companies to name their prices.

Which brings us back to foolish or cynical.

If they didn't realize what they were doing, then it was an astoundingly poor piece of legislation. And if they were fully aware of the ramifications, then it was a blatant attempt to sabotage Obamacare by driving up your health care costs.

"The rationale is certainly puzzling,'' said Sabrina Corlette, a senior research fellow at Georgetown University's Center on Health Insurance Reforms. "If there was resentment or anger at the federal government, it's sort of like biting off your nose to spite your face to say 'Fine, then we're going to take away our own authority to regulate prices.'

"It's an odd kind of approach.''

Why is this noteworthy today?

Because the law that sent the commissioner to the sidelines is set to expire at the end of February. This means the Office of Insurance Regulation can, once again, look out for consumers, as long as state leaders don't come up with a new roadblock.

Except there is this:

Scott abused his authority by whacking one state agency head in the past month, and now he's called for the ouster of Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty, too. This would be the same governor, mind you, who has done everything he can to undermine Obamacare.

So do you suppose that might have something to do with the insurance office's deputy chief, Monte Stevens, telling a House subcommittee last week that he was perfectly fine with being kneecapped?

"I don't think we feel strongly either way,'' Stevens said when talking about having rate approval restored. "It would just be important for the market, for the companies, to have some certainty in that regard . . . so they know what type of regulatory environment that they're dealing with.''

Ain't that a kick in the pants.

The state's watchdog wants to know if it's going to have its teeth pulled so the neighborhood prowlers can be alerted ahead of time.

To be fair, there is no concrete evidence that Florida consumers have been ripped off by health insurance companies. Rates have gone up, but the types of coverage have also changed, making apples-to-apples comparisons more difficult.

What we do know is consumers certainly weren't helped by the law. And insurance commissioners in other states have saved their residents millions of dollars.

"In short, no,'' said Betsy Imholz, director of special projects for Consumers Union, the policy division of Consumer Reports, when asked if there was any rationale for Florida's 2-year-old law. "It's really, really important for consumers to have a state insurance regulator looking out for them.''

As part of the Affordable Care Act, states were offered million-dollar grants to conduct their own annual rate reviews. (Surprise! Florida turned down the grant.) A Health and Human Services report released last year determined that the 40 states that accepted the grant were able to reduce insurance prices for customers by nearly $1 billion.

In Oregon, one of the leading providers requested a 12.5 percent increase and was limited to 10.5. Another provider asked for a slight increase and instead had premiums cut 4.1 percent. In Connecticut, a company originally requested a 12.8 percent increase, later lowered it to 6.2 and was ordered by the state to keep it at 3.1.

"Insurance companies aren't necessarily out to take advantage of customers, but it's a very complicated process,'' said Dena Mendelsohn, a health policy analyst at the Consumers Union. "You want as many eyes, as many reviews, as many experts as you can get. It gives you a three-dimensional view that's necessary.''

Keep that in mind as Florida lawmakers start making the trek back to Tallahassee.

Not every piece of legislation is going to help every resident, but is it too much to ask our leaders to avoid passing laws that deliberately hurt us?