Arizona Task Force Developing Plans for Universal Health Coverage

Arizona's Statewide Health Care Insurance Plan Task Force is drafting a proposal that would provide health insurance to the state's one million uninsured residents within the next three to five years, the Arizona Daily Star reports. The task force, made up of three state senators, three state representatives and three community members appointed by Gov. Jane Hull (R), worked on the proposal with a 14-member technical advisory panel made up of hospital, state agency and insurance company representatives. The proposal has been in the planning stages for the past two years and now is moving toward final planning and implementation, the Star reports. Below are reforms that the task force is considering:

• Allow the uninsured with incomes too high to qualify for the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, the state's Medicaid program, to buy into the program. The current income eligibility limit is 100% of poverty, or $8,590 for an individual and $17,650 for a family of four.
• Expand a pilot insurance program, called Premium Sharing, and raise its income eligibility limit (Erickson, Arizona Daily Star, 3/10). The three-year program, now limited to four counties, allows individuals with incomes up to 200% of the poverty level and chronically ill individuals with incomes between 200% and 400% of the poverty level to receive coverage under Medicaid. Participants pay monthly premiums based on their annual incomes (PSP Web site).
• Continue funding the Healthcare Group, a state-subsidized insurance plan for self-insured individuals and small businesses, for at least one more year. In the future, premiums for beneficiaries with higher incomes would be increased to help phase out state funding.
• Create an insurance pool for individuals with pre-existing conditions that make them uninsurable in the private market that would be funded through premiums and state subsidies.
• Begin an educational campaign to tell people that not having coverage can be "financially devastating" for both themselves and the state.

High Costs Involved
State Sen. Ed Cirillo (R), the task force's co-chair, said, "We want to improve on what we have and make it better. There's a whole lot of arrows in the quiver that we can use to fix the problem." However, the Star reports that the insurance industry is "skeptic[al]" that the proposed plans would work. Sandra Gibson, vice president and chief actuary of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona, as well as an advisory panel member, said the proposals all would require additional state funding, a need that could prove "insurmountable." She added, "An expansion of state programs that don't pay their full cost ... hurts providers, so they have to make up for that shortfall by passing on higher costs to those with private insurance." The task force has not given cost estimates for the reforms. Any of the proposals would require approval from state lawmakers and the governor before it could be implemented, the Star reports. In addition, any changes to the state's Medicaid program must be approved by the federal government (Arizona Daily Star, 3/10).