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Legislative Update

Week Ending March 21, 2008

• CPA Mobility Legislation in Utah and Idaho Signed Into Law
• House Democrats Deliver on Health Insurance
• Insurance Regulation Reforms Poised for House Action
  
• Tax Credit Bills Would Help Volunteer Firefighters and EMS Workers
• Governor Signs Local Government Bills
• Register to Vote by March 24
• It’s Back…June 11 PICPA’s Day on the Hill
  

CPA Mobility Legislation in Utah and Idaho Signed Into Law

CPA practice mobility legislation continues to gain momentum. Utah and Idaho this week became the third and fourth states to have mobility legislation signed into law in 2008. They now join Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Maine, Missouri, New Mexico, Ohio, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin, bringing the total of states enacting mobility legislation to fifteen. 

Pennsylvania is one of 16 states that currently have mobility legislation pending. The others include Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Iowa, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, and Oklahoma. Legislation is expected to be introduced in South Carolina and Michigan in the coming weeks.

House Democrats Deliver on Health Insurance

By a vote of 118-81, the state House on March 17 approved a Democratic plan that would expand health insurance coverage to Pennsylvania’s uninsured. 

Senate Bill 1137 would create the Pennsylvania Access to Basic Care, or PA ABC, by expanding the adultBasic benefits to include eligible working people, and also adding prescription drug coverage, behavioral health services, wellness care and disease management. It would extend the state’s MCARE medical malpractice abatement program, while also starting the phase-out of the coverage over the next ten years.

Under the PA ABC program, coverage would be available to eligible individuals and eligible employees of small businesses, with 50 or fewer employees and an average payroll of less than 300 percent of poverty. In addition, eligible subscribers would be required to be Pennsylvania residents for at least 90 days and without health insurance for at least 180 days, before applying for coverage. 

Under the plan, small employers may choose to opt into the program. Those who do would pay 50 percent of the cost of the premiums for their employees.

Eligible people earning less than 150 percent of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL) would get fully subsidized coverage. Those earning up to 175 percent of the FPL would pay $40 per month, and up to 200 percent, $50 per month.

According to the House Appropriations Committee’s fiscal note, the cost of health care coverage and administrative costs is estimated at $501 million in FY 2008-09, $808 million in FY 2009-10, and $994 million in FY 2010-11. The estimated state share is $213 million in FY 2008-09, $280 million in FY 2009-10, and $333 million in FY 2010-11.

SB 1137 would also present tax grants of up to 25 percent to small businesses with 50 or fewer employees providing health care coverage comparable to PA ABC, and a 50 percent tax grant when coverage is offered to spouses and dependents.

The bill also provides for health savings accounts. 

However, the plan was not without its opponents. A chief concern voiced by House Republicans during floor debate centers on how the plan would shift who is uninsured. By creating an enlarged government-run program, people who currently have insurance will be crowded out, adding new and different people to the ranks of the uninsured, noted the House GOP. 

Funding for PA ABC would be provided by a mix of premiums paid by individuals and employers, funding from the legislature, tobacco settlement funds, federal matching funds and extra funds from the Health Care Provider Retention Account after all MCARE and unfunded liability payments have been fully paid.

The legislation now moves to the Senate for consideration.

Insurance Reforms Poised for House Action

Insurance was the front burner issue in the state House this week. After approving the Pennsylvania ABC health care reform legislation, the House went to work on two other insurance regulation reform bills, positioning them for a vote when it reconvenes at the end of the month. 

House Bill 2005 would prevent large health insurance companies from adjusting health insurance rates according to the health, age, gender or other demographic factors of the plan participants.

The bill also would broaden the powers of the insurance commissioner, giving the office three years to make regulations without oversight from the state agencies that typically would have approval rights over regulations. Insurers would also be required to spend 85 cents of every premium dollar on health care, rather than overhead or profits.

An amendment was adopted to this bill that would prevent insurers from basing insurance rates for small businesses on the health, age or other demographic factors of their employees.

House Bill 2098 would allow private insurers to deny payments to hospitals and health care providers for avoidable medical errors or hospital-acquired infections.

Tax Credit Bills Would Help Volunteer Firefighters and EMS Workers 

State Senators Lisa Baker (R-Luzerne) and Mike Waugh (R-York) have introduced legislation to provide tax credits to fire and emergency service volunteers and their employers. 

Their plan includes:

• A $500 tax credit for active members of volunteer firefighting and emergency medical services organizations, as certified by the State Fire Commissioner or the Director of the Emergency Medical Services Office in the Department of Health.
• A tuition reimbursement credit of 50 percent for each course credit.  The credit would be paid directly to the college or university.
• A $1,000 tax credit against an employer’s personal income tax for each volunteer fire and emergency services member employed.  The credit would not exceed $5,000 per employer during a specific tax year.

In 2004, a commission was established to make recommendations for improving the delivery of emergency services in Pennsylvania.  To date, four of the twenty-three targeted areas have been addressed.

Governor Signs Local Government Bills

On March 18, Gov. Ed Rendell signed several local government bills into law.

House Bills 1131, 1133 and 1134 amend various state laws to require that townships and boroughs be responsible for ensuring that fire and emergency medical services are provided within their borders and that the township or borough has the authority to determine and provide the appropriate financial and administrative assistance required to provide the services.

It also requires emergency service organizations receiving municipal funds to provide proof of expenditures before the municipality releases new funds.

Register to Vote by March 24

Less than one week remains to mail in voter registration forms! 

All eyes are on Pennsylvania as Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton try to win as many delegates as possible.  (John McCain and Ron Paul remain as GOP contestants although McCain has "clinched" the nomination.­)  Pennsylvania's Primary elections count - especially in the Democratic Presidential Nomination.  (Republican and Democrat Primaries for Congressional and state Legislature races are also quite important!) 

The more than 1 million voters registered as "Independents," with a "third party," or with no party affiliation will not be able to participate in the presidential nomination process without changing their registration to one of the major parties.  (An individual who has changed their registration can change again beginning April 23 with the same form.)

To vote for Democratic or Republican Presidential candidates, convention delegates, and state office candidates, an individual MUST be registered in that major political party by no later than March 24.  An official form is available by logging into www.pennsylvaniaprosperity.org and entering the new voter's zip code in the blue EZ Vote box on the top left of the Web page.

It’s Back… June 11 PICPA’s Day on the Hill

Mark your calendar and plan to join your colleagues on June 11 for PICPA’s Day on the Hill at the Harrisburg Hilton. Here you will meet to discuss current issues affecting the profession and to interact with your legislators. Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi, Democratic Floor Leader Sen. Robert Mellow, and Rep. Joshua Shapiro will be among those present to discuss their caucus’s legislative agenda and give a political outlook. Gov. Ed Rendell has been invited, as well. Register now.