Rhode Island Launches New State Health Insurance Program

Rhode Island on Feb. 1 announced plans to launch RIte Share, a new health coverage program for low-income residents, the Providence Journal reports. The new plan will pay up to 50% of health insurance premiums for companies that offer coverage to low-income employees who would "otherwise" qualify for coverage under RIte Care, the state's existing health insurance program for low- and middle-income residents. According to DHS Associate Director Ronald LeBel, the state initially will offer the program to "four or five" unnamed firms, although he said, "We do not, at this point, have formal agreements with these employers." Individuals with incomes up to 185% of the federal poverty level -- $31,542 for a family of four -- will qualify for RIte Share. While state Department of Human Services Director Christine Ferguson admitted that the "road has been bumpy, citing "setbacks" -- such as the state's failure to secure two federal waivers that would reduce program costs -- she said yesterday that DHS will roll out RIte Share "on a small scale" and "open the door" for enrollment on April 1. Still, the Journal reports that "[s]cores of details have yet to be worked out" for the program, which Gov. Lincoln Almond's (R) administration and key lawmakers developed to "curb the exploding cost" of RIte Care. DHS officials predicted that 2,500 employees will enroll in the program by June 30, which will cost about $500,000 for the year, and estimated that the "tab" for RIte Share would likely grow to $20 million by June 30, 2002. Ferguson acknowledged, however, that employers could "jac[k] up" health insurance premiums to cut their own health care costs at the state's expense. "That may happen in a very small number of cases," Ferguson said, but she expected that most firms would not take such action "because in order to do that, the employer would have to do that for all of his employees . . . including management, because of non-discrimination laws" (Green, Providence Journal, 2/1).