House Approves Bill Easing Rules On Health Insurance

A Republican plan to relax the state’s regulatory grip on health insurers passed the House on Tuesday after backers asserted it would help consumers and foes contended it would help only industry profits.

Among other things, the measure would require uninsured people to wait up to 11 months to get affordable health insurance and would allow insurers to drop any plan or plan “product,” such as maternity care, with 90 days’ notice.

The bill, HB2018, passed 66-32.

GOP supporters said soaring costs attributed to a law that allows sick people to sign up for affordable insurance are driving insurance carriers out of the state.

The proposal, sponsored by Rep. Phil Dyer, R-Issaquah, would eliminate or greatly alter the surviving elements of the 1993 law that overhauled the state’s health care system. The law was largely repealed in 1995.

Dyer is an executive in a medical malpractice insurance company and chairman of the House Health Care Committee. Among other things, his measure would:

Revoke the current guarantee that anyone at any time can sign up for the health insurance of his or her choice and wait just three months for treatment of an existing condition. Instead, applicants could sign up only in July unless they already are enrolled in a plan and are shifting to another.

Allow insurers to drop a plan or any products of a plan, such as maternity care, after 90 days’ notice to enrollees that they must find another insurer.

Guarantee rate increases and profits for health carriers by putting into statute unacceptable loss ratios that would trigger higher rates.

Strip the insurance commissioner of the power to regulate managed-care providers and hand the power over to the state Health Care Authority. Insurance Commissioner Deborah Senn has been at odds with the GOP and insurers over what they contend is heavy-handed regulation.

Smoking rules

A bill to relax rules for on-the-job smoking areas passed the Senate on Tuesday.

Backers of SB5666, which now heads to the House, said employers currently must leave their workers standing - and smoking - out in the cold if the business can’t afford to pay for a state-required ventilation system in a smoking room.

The bill, which passed 27-22, would loosen the strict ventilation requirements set by the Washington Industrial Safety and Health Act. Instead, it would have employers and their employees work together to come up with an acceptable ventilation plan. It still allows employers to decide whether a business will have a smoking room.

Among the bills passed by the House on Tuesday were:

HB1815, requiring people to show they are directly affected by a planning issue in order to have standing before a hearings board under the state Growth Management Act. It passed 62-36.

HB1816, to greatly loosen requirements for comprehensive planning under the Growth Management Act. It passed 61-37.

HB1978, to allow the Washington State Patrol to destroy seized firearms only if they are unsafe or inoperative, and have been offered to and rejected by a dealer for sale or trade. It passed 70-28.

College tuition

Tuition at Washington’s public colleges should rise by a “predictable, affordable” 4 percent a year, the state Senate voted Tuesday night.

The tuition policy, which heads to the House after a strong 42-7 sendoff from the Senate, would replace the current system of the Legislature setting a new rate every two years.

The plan actually would provide some relief in escalating tuition costs: The 20-year average increase has been 9.5 percent a year. Further, leaders of both parties and Gov. Gary Locke have called for an increase in student financial aid.

The measure says tuition would automatically rise each year by 4 percent or the average growth in personal income, whichever is lower.