Workgroup - BOI Meeting, July 30th

The Direct Care Worker Workgroup meeting with the Bureau of Insurance on July 30th went well. BOI asked the Maine State Chamber to present information on their purchasing alliance. What this particular alliance does is allow companies who are members of their local chamber of commerce buy into the group health insurance that is purchased by the alliance. These companies pay a yearly membership to the alliance. That fee goes to cover the administrative costs of the alliance. Ninety percent of the companies in this alliance have fewer than 50 employees. The participation rate is sixty percent. That makes a significant difference in whether or not the companies can utilize this alliance. The sixty percent participation rate means that the companies need to have sixty percent of their employees use the coverage in one form or another in order to participate in the plan. Another thing that struck me was the flexibility of the insurance plan. Employees have the option of choosing a plan that best suits their needs. Someone who is healthy and does not see their doctor often can opt for the health savings plan where someone who has small children can opt for an HMO plan. This alliance is also community rated and this is also attributed to its success. On the down side was the fact that most of these companies have 50 employees or fewer. A second BOI code was presented. That was the Maine Bar Association. This association was created with the sole purpose of buying health insurance for lawyers and their staff. This association is large, made up of 400 members. It is treated as a large group. Base rates are the same for all members in the group. The association is not community rated, it competes with community rated options. Small and large businesses participate, one having 1,500 employees that are insured. The association offers four to seven insurance products. Examples of associations to purchase health insurance are the Maine Medical Association and the Maine Dental Association. After discussion on this code, Kurt Wise of MECEP and Elise Scala of the Muskie School, both members of the Maine Direct Care Worker Coalition, presented information on what other states are doing in gaining health care coverage for their direct care workers. Kurt pointed out that states like Rhode Island and Montana have chosen to single out certain workforces that they feel are important to the overall health and well-being of their states. Rhode Island created a special program to help cover child care workers. Montana enhanced Medicaid payments to homecare providers that provide coverage to workers. The employer has to demonstrate that the money is going to providing health insurance for its workers. Other states are singling out their direct care workers as a viable, needed, important workforce; states like Iowa, Montana, California, New York. Elise brought attention to HCHCW's Coverage Models from Other States (http://hchcw.org link at right as well) and pointed to Iowa and its Health Care Reform Bill. Part of this reform requires Iowa's Department of Public Health to expand efforts to insure that a well-qualified and stable health and long-term care workforce exists. A Direct Care Worker Compensation Committee will be set up to make recommendations to increase worker wages and other forms of compensation. A pilot project will also get under way to provide health care coverage for up to 250 direct care workers and their families. This will be done by the Department of Human Services in an effort to see how this coverage will help workers and see if there's an impact on the turnover rate. There was some discussion on the SEIU plans that are covered in that booklet from Health Care for Health Care Workers. Maryanne Turowski from MSEA-SEIU Local 1989 will bring in information on those plans and on a plan that is in the works for its child care members and for 771 to the next BOI meeting. That meeting is scheduled for Monday, August 11 at the Bureau of Insurance in Gardiner from 9 - 11. Again, the public is welcome. Please contact me helen.hnsn@gmail.com for more information or directions.