Committee approves sending repeal of obsolete small-employer reinsurance program to House floor

BOISE — The House Business Committee on Feb. 11 recommended sending House Bill 116 to the House floor with a “do pass” recommendation. The bill would repeal an Idaho reinsurance program for small employers that the Department of Insurance says has not been used since 2016.

Representative Rod Furnas, sponsor of the bill, said the Small Employer Health Insurance Availability Act provisions that created the pool are obsolete after the Affordable Care Act expanded small-group market protections. “We haven't had any claimants on this small group pool since 02/2016,” Furnas said, and continued that continuing to require annual audits and assessments is an unnecessary cost for industry.

Dean Cameron, director of the Idaho Department of Insurance, told the committee the program “worked for a period of time” but is no longer required and is part of a department effort to clean up obsolete statutes. Cameron said the department drafted the statute originally and supports repeal.

Committee members asked whether the repeal would interact with Medicaid expansion or other health-coverage policy. Director Cameron clarified that the reinsurance pool concerns small-employer coverage and “would have no impact whatsoever in the public policy decision that this legislature will make on whether to continue Medicaid expansion,” which focuses on individual coverage.

There was no public testimony and no recorded opposition in the committee; Representative Wheeler moved the committee motion and the committee approved the bill by voice vote.

If passed by the Legislature, the bill would remove statutory provisions the Department of Insurance identified as obsolete; it does not itself change Medicaid policy or create new program spending.