Lower Health Insurance costs in the future for hoosiers?

With more than 700,000 Hoosiers without any health insurance, with 56 percent of smaller businesses unable to offer employees coverage because it’s just too expensive and with premiums that go up every year, we have a real crisis on our hands,” said Simpson.“We can’t wait for the system to fix itself and we can’t wait for Washington any longer. Too many Hoosier families and businesses are left unprotected. The bills I am introducing today are reasonable steps to create a more efficient system where more people will have the opportunity to access the coverage they need and deserve.”Among the bills Simpson will introduce is a measure to aid Indiana’s small businesses by allowing them to purchase health insurance through the state. If enacted, the Private Employer Health Insurance Program would provide small businesses, those with 100 or fewer employees, with access to the state employee health insurance plan or a separately established pool.“All too often health insurance is an impediment to economic investment and job creation, particularly for small businesses,” said Simpson. “This is no longer just a health care issue, it’s a jobs issue, it’s an economic development issue and it’s a quality of life issue.”With 109,000 eligible small businesses and more than 886,000 employees throughout the state, the legislation requires the State Budget Agency to develop and implement a program no later than July 1, 2006. Simpson is also introducing a cost-saving measure, which would merge the state’s colleges and universities health care plans with state employee’s plan in order to seek better prices and products.Currently each university has its own plan, creating discrepancies in both cost and services among the institutions. With the varying plans, they spend a total of $325 million each year to cover 172,000 employees and their dependents. At the same time, the state employee plan covers more than 85,000 employees and their families, at an annual cost of $252 million. “With our state’s fiscal situation and the growing cost of health care, going it alone no longer makes sense,” said Simpson. “By working together we can more than double the number of people covered through the state’s health insurance program. That strengthens our ability to negotiate for better prices and products and ultimately it reduces the program’s total costs.”A third piece of legislation Simpson is introducing calls for standardizing the administrative requirements surrounding the delivery of health care services. Duplicative and cumbersome administrative paperwork and processes between providers, payers and insurance carriers significantly adds to the overall cost. Under the senator’s proposal, standardized operating procedures would be implemented to create common credentialing, medical records review and pre-certification standards for all health care entities operating in Indiana. The plan also calls for making the various forms, directories and certificates of coverage available electronically and on the web for more efficient and timely transactions. “Too much of what the average person pays in health care costs goes towards red-tape and paperwork and not toward actually helping them,” said Simpson. “Each health care insurer has a different set of forms, each one has a different set of processes and each one has a different approval process.”“What this bill does is to simplify those procedures by creating a common language from which all entities can work. With the technology we have available today, streamlining this just makes sense from both a business and customer service standpoint.” The final piece of Simpson’s plan calls for the expansion of the Bulk Prescription Drug Purchasing Program, which she worked to create last session. Under Simpson’s plan, which she has previously announced, Indiana-based small businesses, county hospitals and nonprofit organizations would be allowed to enter the state’s drug purchasing pool. The move would significantly reduce the overall costs to small businesses by expanding the state’s pool, providing more leverage to bargain for lower drug costs. The proposal would also delete language in existing law prohibiting the state’s Medicaid program, which covers approximately 800,000 Hoosiers, from joining the pool. “These are all common sense measures we can take today that will have a profound impact on people’s ability to access quality health care. Health care is not a luxury item, and it shouldn’t be priced as one,” added Simpson. “Affordable health care is a basic right too which everyone is entitled. And this session, I intend to work with my colleagues in the General Assembly and the incoming administration to make sure every Hoosier enjoys that right.” In her 20 years in the Indiana State Senate, Simpson has been a leading voice on health and human services issues. Simpson has authored or sponsored successful legislation establishing the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), creating a HMO Patients' "Bill of Rights," establishing the Office of Women's Health in State Health Department, providing mental health "parity" in health insurance and expanding state oversight of HMOs. She successfully lobbied for additional state funds for the CHOICE home health care program and co-authored the Long Term Care Reform Act, which focuses on the building of community based options for senior citizens.