by Becky Bowers-Lanier
The Virginia General Assembly completed its work (mostly) on Thursday, March 12th, having introduced 3,910 bills and passing 2,153 of those measures. That’s a lot of deliberating in 65 days, and for this advocacy consultant, my head was spinning a good bit of the time, what with all the bills and the political changes in the General Assembly. The Assembly will return on April 22 to deal with any changes to bills that the Governor recommends. This report will describe briefly those changes and prognosticate about what’s next for our legislature, discuss the one piece of diabetes-specific legislation that passed, and provide an overview on the bills that VDC worked on, with other advocacy groups.
First, the changes in the General Assembly. The session was one of firsts:
- First time in a generation that the Democrats gained a majority in both the Senate and the House, meaning that all committees were headed by Democrats who also held the majority of seats on all committees;
- First female Speaker of the House (Del. Eileen Filler-Corn);
- First time that female legislators were in other leadership positions, including majority leader of the House and president pro-temp of the Senate, chairs of House committees on labor and commerce; judiciary; counties, cities, and towns; education, finance, rules, and transportation, and chairs of Senate committees on education and health, finance and appropriations, rehabilitation and social services, and rules.
Second, the diabetes specific legislation. Del. Lee Carter (D) of Manassas and Prince Wm County, introduced HB 66, a bill that would prohibit insurance companies regulated by the Virginia Bureau of Insurance from charging a co-pay above $50 per 30-day supply that a covered person is required to pay to receive an insulin prescription. Of note, Del. Jay Leftwich (R) of Chesapeake also introduced a similar bill, and his was incorporated in Del. Carter’s bill. The bill was passed by both House and Senate and sent to the Governor for his action. Governor Northam has until April 11th to decide on whether to suggest changes to the bill or to sign it.
The insulin bill is a fairly significant achievement for Virginia, as these sorts of bills do not often make it through the legislative process. Yet, the bill received bipartisan support. It will go into effect with health plans that are amended, extended or renewed after January 1, 2021. In legislative committee hearings, VDC spoke in favor of the legislation.
Third, other legislation. VDC was a member of the Heathy Market Coalition, which has a Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/healthymarketva. Our aim was to maintain access to quality healthcare coverage for all Virginians. Specifically, we opposed two types of efforts to undermine the quality of healthcare insurance to Virginians with chronic conditions, which are described below.
Del. Chris Hurst and Sen. George Barker HB 795 (Del. Hurst) and SB 235 (Sen. Barker) gained passage of two identical “association” health plan bills. Unfortunately, the plans may pull away people from the community risk pool that keeps a large number of people in the marketplace and helps to keep the cost of insurance lower for all.
A third insurance bill, SB 861, patroned by Sen. Monty Mason, is more problematic. This bill would create a “benefits” consortium for eligible members. Because of its framing as a “benefits” plan, it does not need to abide by the provisions of the Affordable Care Act and therefore would be devastating for people with diabetes. The plans could deny people with preexisting conditions and deny coverage for drugs. The Healthy Market Coalition is asking to Governor to veto these three bills.
Two identical plans introduced by Del. Sam Rasoul and Sen. Ghazala Hashmi (HB 1037 (Del. Rasoul) and SB 404 (Hashmi) will create short-term, limited duration health insurance plans for no more than 180 days in a year. These plans also do not have to adhere to all the requirements of the Affordable Care Act and may include no coverage for prescription drugs and pre-existing conditions, such as diabetes. The plans also carry higher premiums and cap services. The coalition is asking the Governor write into the bills a provision that enrollee applicants must be informed about the specifics of these short-term plans—that they do not provide comprehensive coverage, thus exposing them to extremely high cost-sharing.
Finally, a word about COVID 19. We are all experiencing the effects of the pandemic in so many ways. Our legislators will have to make decisions about the biennial budget in their April 22nd meeting. The state must work on a balanced budget, and it’s clear that the economic downturn and business shutdowns will decrease state revenues. The question is, which budget line items will be cut to save money for the state? We’ll know more in a few weeks. Stay tuned.
Don’t hesitate to call or email Becky Bowers-Lanier (804-382-0991/becky@virginiadiabetes.org).