Committee accepts amendment to House Bill 99 after testimony on Farm Bureau health plans

The Ohio House Insurance Committee on the third hearing of House Bill 99 accepted an amendment clarifying that health care benefit coverage provided by a nonprofit agricultural membership organization is exempt from state insurance laws, and that members must receive written notice that the coverage is not insurance.

The amendment (AM-136-0363) was moved by Representative Barhorst and accepted without objection. The committee then heard proponent testimony from Ben Sanders of Farm Bureau Health Plans (Tennessee) and opponent testimony from Lee Almeda of the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) and other written opponents.

The amendment “specifies that health care benefit coverage provided by a nonprofit agricultural membership organization, as opposed to the organization itself, is exempt from state insurance laws,” Representative Barhorst said while explaining AM-136-0363. It also requires that applications and member contracts be in writing and “predominantly state” the coverage is not insurance, and it adds references to the Physician Health Plan Partnership Act and the law governing multiple-employer welfare arrangements to the list of statutes from which the coverage is exempt, Barhorst said.

Ben Sanders, who identified…