Workgroup - BOI Meeting, August 11

At the Direct Care Worker Health Insurance Workgroup meeting with the Bureau of Insurance on August 11th, MSEA-SEIU Local 1989 presented a health insurance product that is available to SEIU members. This plan covers doctors' visits, some radiology exams and some lab tests. It does not cover hospitalization should a policy holder require it. There are no pre-existing exclusions. It also has dental coverage if the policy holder so chooses. It is a limited benefit plan, not comprehensive or catastrophic. This plan is basically for those who are relatively healthy and want a little help with those annual physicals and doctors' visits if something should come up. I'm not sure if a bone got broken, how this plan would work. Prescriptions are not covered. This plan is administered through SEIU, a third party trust that is part of the Union Trust. It is approved through Aetna, not SEIU. This plan comes in three tiers, A, B and C with a dental rider. I am not sure what the three tiers are or what they offer. I know that MSEA-SEIU is looking into to this for 771 and Childcare members. This plan may be offered as single, self-insured, it is not offered through contract negotiations yet. After the SEIU plan was presented, there was a lot of discussion as to affordability. The next phase of the meeting was identifying issues pertaining to Direct Care Workers and health insurance. These issues brought forward were: accessibility, eligibility; affordability; benefit design, education, marketing; wellness. The insurance codes that BOI presented at an earlier session were also presented again. One option that decidely is not for DCWs is the Multi-Employer Welfare Arrangement (MEWA) because employers pool risk making each responsible for liabilities. BOI also presented possible options for us to work with. DirigoChoice showed up in these options many times. I spoke up and said that Direct Care Workers lost their bid for DirigoChoice, through LD1687, because of funding problems for Dirigo. I said that was why we were all at the table, trying to come up with a different solution to gain health insurance for Direct Care Workers. Elise Scala from the Muskie School urged folks to remember that the Direct Care Worker Coalition focused their efforts on Dirigo because of the program's design. The sliding scale on premiums based on income would work well for Direct Care Workers. On this I agree. Dirigo's sliding scale would work great for us Direct Care workers. Again, the problem is funding. Elise also recommended that the report to the Insurance and Financial Services Committee make mention of Dirigo's design in an effort to make premiums affordable. Joanne Rawlings-Sekunda and Deputy Superintendent Judy Shaw urged us all to start thinking about what we want going into the report for IFS. The next meeting to start doing that work is Wednesday, August 20th, 10-12 at the Bureau of Insurance Office on Northern Avenue in Gardiner. The public is welcome. If you're interested in attending and want more information or directions, please send an email helen.hnsn@gmail.com. If your want more information on the SEIU plan, please use my email or call MSEA-SEIU Headquarters at 1-800-452-8794 and ask for Mike Sylvester.