Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Health Insurance Reinsurance topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Committee forwards bill to repeal small‑employer reinsurance program to House floor
Summary
Lawmakers voted to send House Bill 116 to the floor. Sponsors and the Idaho Department of Insurance said the small‑employer reinsurance program (created in the 1990s) is obsolete after the Affordable Care Act expanded small‑group coverage and that continuing administrative audits imposes unnecessary costs.
Representative Rod Furnas, R‑District 31, asked the House Business Committee on Feb. 11 to repeal an obsolete small‑employer reinsurance statute, saying the program was useful before the Affordable Care Act (ACA) expanded access but is now unnecessary.
Dean Cameron, director of the Idaho Department of Insurance, told the committee the program had filled a role when small employers struggled to obtain coverage, but that “the program worked for a period of time. It's no longer needed and it is part of our efforts to clean up our statutes.”
Furnas and Cameron said the program required annual audits and that carriers and employers still pay into the pool only to pay audit costs. Cameron said the pool has had no active claimants since February 2016; one claimant entered in February 2016 and left the pool in February 2021.
Representative Wheeler moved to send House Bill 116 to the House floor with a do‑pass recommendation; the committee approved the motion by voice vote. No formal roll‑call was recorded in the transcript.
Committee members asked whether the statute’s usefulness would change if federal policy on Medicaid or other ACA provisions were altered; Director Cameron answered that Medicaid expansion addresses individual coverage and that the reinsurance program targets the small‑employer market and would not be affected by the state's Medicaid policy decisions.
The bill would repeal statutory language tied to the small‑employer reinsurance program; committee discussion focused on obsolescence and administrative cost savings rather than on creating a replacement program.
