Lawmakers Turn Attention To Implementing Health Care Law

(Host) Lawmakers spent a lot of time last year crafting a new outline for the state's health care system.

This year they have to begin to implement the law. And that's already generating plenty of debate.

VPR's Bob Kinzel reports:

(Kinzel) Last year, lawmakers passed the framework for the Governor's health care initiative. This year they are considering the specific details of the plan and they're also working to bring the state into compliance with the new federal health care law known as the Affordable Care Act.

The new proposal creates a federally mandated health care exchange where individuals and small businesses will purchase policies beginning in 2014.

The goal is to allow consumers to compare policies with the same benefit packages from different health insurance carriers.

Senate Economic Development committee chairman Vincent Illuzzi is concerned that the benefit options adopted in Vermont won't allow small businesses to offer very high deductible policies to their employees - policies that in some cases include health savings accounts.

(Illuzzi) "Because they believe that when it's all said and done they're going to be hit with higher costs, they're going to be required to buy more robust or higher plans than what they've been able to cobble together and get to work for them and their employees, and that in the long run they're probably going to drop coverage which will then perhaps send them into the individual market."

(Kinzel) Mike Fisher is the chairman of the House Health Care committee - the panel that's currently reviewing the Governor's proposal.  He says the new federal law establishes a cap for deductibles at $2,000 for an individual and $4,000 for a family.  

Fisher says this makes sense because there are a lot of Vermonters who are under insured because they have very high deductible plans.

(Fisher) "That is, their out of pockets and co-pays are a high percent of their income. 160,000 Vermonters are out there thinking ‘I'm covered' until they get really sick. Now some of them never will get sick and they have low cost plans and their employers are happy because the premiums are low. But when they get really sick and they have a 40% share of their illness and they have a $100,000 bill, they come to us and say ‘whoa, I thought I was covered and it turns out I'm not and I'm at risk of losing my house.'"

(Kinzel) Fisher says he's convinced that any business that wants to offer a health savings account plan to their employees will be able to do so under the Governor's bill.

For VPR News, I'm Bob Kinzel in Montpelier