September 19, 2011

Senate Committee on Health Insurance Exchanges Holds Second Hearing  

The Senate Interim Committee on Health Insurance Exchanges held its second hearing last week in Jefferson City.  Senator Rupp, the Committee Chair, invited public testimony before calling the invited presenters to offer their testimony. At the first hearing, held in Kansas City, many consumers were unable to testify when the Committee spent more than two hours questioning Attorney General Chris Koster and John Huff, Director of the Department of Insurance.

Several Senators in attendance expressed concern that the Governor would establish an initial governance structure for an exchange by executive order, rather than waiting for the legislature to act.  A bill that would have established the structure and governing board for the exchange passed the House unanimously in the last session, but was stalled in the Senate. 

There was a discussion when news spread that the Missouri Health Insurance Pool Board was scheduled to vote on a resolution from Governor Nixon at their meeting, which was happening concurrently.  The resolution authorized Director Huff to administer the federal grant Missouri recently received to support planning for its health insurance exchange.  This would allow Director Huff to award contracts and hire staff to continue the planning process. MHIP was the entity that submitted the application for the federal planning grant in June.

Senator Ridgeway suggested that the Chair end the hearing and that the members should drive over to the MHIP Board meeting to stop the vote.  Senator Rupp continued the hearing as planned.  Senators Lembke, Schaaf and Cunningham did leave and drove to the MHIP meeting.  After a closed discussion, it was announced that the resolution would not be brought to a vote at the meeting.  Governor Nixon issued a statement assuring the Senators that he was not trying to usurp the authority of the legislature to set up an exchange.

Chair Rupp stated that there would be a hearing in St. Louis in October and that it is likely that the Springfield hearing would be rescheduled. It was cancelled when Governor Nixon convened the Special Session.

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