Gavel may toll risk-pool bill's end

Health coverage aid plan must wait

Legislation that would enable thousands of chronically ill, uninsured North Carolinians to buy affordable coverage, which passed the state House by an overwhelming margin last week, appears unlikely to be taken up by the state Senate before lawmakers head home for good.

"Will it come up? The short answer is no," said Sen. Tony Rand, a Fayetteville Democrat who often takes the lead on health care issues. He said the General Assembly's final days this session will be consumed with putting the finishing touches on an ethics bill and a handful of other conference bills.

That means people such as Denis and Alice O'Connor of Chapel Hill will continue to do without health coverage.

The O'Connors, who are retired but too young to qualify for Medicare, lost their private health insurance in 2003 when their carrier quit doing business in North Carolina. They immediately tried to buy coverage through Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina, but they turned the policy down when they were told various health problems -- high cholesterol, multiple skin cancers, migraine headaches -- would push the cost of their plan to $3,000 a month.

Denis O'Connor, 63, said the N.C. Health Insurance Risk Pool would have helped.

People buying insurance through the pool would pay no more than 150 percent of what a healthy person would pay for similar coverage. For example, if a healthy person pays $400 a month, then the high-risk person could be charged no more than $600.

"I think that's reasonable," said O'Connor, who had been tracking the pool's progress.

People would have to meet one of several conditions, such as being refused health insurance coverage because of health reasons or being quoted a rate that exceeds the cost of what a similar policy would cost through the risk pool, to be eligible. The bill assumes an estimated 9,000 state residents who are now uninsured would be able to buy coverage.

The pool wouldn't be able to cover its costs through member premiums alone. North Carolina insurers would pay a certain amount per month -- initially, it would be 70 cents per member -- to help cover medical costs.

Whisper campaign?

Legislation to create the risk pool was based on the work of a task force convened by the N.C. Institute of Medicine. Participants included business owners, health insurance executives -- including Blue Cross chief executive Robert J. Greczyn -- hospital administrators, doctors, consumer advocates and lawmakers, including Rand. The bill passed the House 95-10 Monday.

Based on that response, supporters of the bill had hoped it would win quick approval in the Senate. But Rand said there isn't enough time to properly consider such an important bill before the end of the session.

"To try to do a bill of this magnitude in two days is irresponsible," Rand said.

Adam Searing, a consumer advocate who strongly supports the high-risk pool, suspects the bill is the victim of a whisper campaign by insurers that don't want to pay for the pool, or think it would siphon away people who now buy private coverage. In a newsletter sent by e-mail this week, Searing accused Blue Cross of acting to kill the bill.

"I don't eavesdrop, but I've spent enough time around the legislature to know when a lobbyist for an organization is working very hard on a piece of legislation," Searing said in an interview.

Blue Cross spokesman Lew Borman said Searing's assumptions simply aren't true.

"We support the bill as it was delivered from the House to the Senate," Borman said. "We didn't do anything to kill it."

The Senate likely will refer the high-risk pool bill to a joint study commission, which could revive it when the General Assembly reconvenes in January, Rand said.