When the state Legislature reconvenes next month, it should waste little time in addressing the intricacies of an existing state law that essentially prohibits insurers from offering health savings accounts (HSAs).
HSAs were signed into law by President Bush last year. They are high-deductible, but tax-free accounts that workers can use to pay for health care expenses not covered by their insurance.
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Proponents tout HSAs as an innovative approach to promoting consumer-driven health insurance and point to various studies indicating that they do save money. They are increasingly popular, rolling out in most states around the country.
But in Rhode Island, HSAs can’t be offered because high-deductible plans that would meet IRS guidelines would be illegal because they would not include coverage for early intervention services for children with developmental disabilities. That coverage was mandated by the state Legislature this past July.
Lawmakers were well intentioned in passing the legislation. That the law would prohibit HSAs did not become clear until UnitedHealthcare proposed such a program, only to be told by the state Department of Business Regulation that its proposal ran afoul of the new legislation.
It’s a complicated matter. But this much we know: Health insurance costs continue to soar out of control and something needs to be done.
It seems to us that some tweaking of the legislation last summer could achieve two objectives. That is, maintain the coverage for the children with developmental disabilities and meet the guidelines necessary to allow for HSAs.
Why the secret meetings?
Given the negative publicity that it has generated – well, for as long as we can remember – you would think the state Legislature would comply with the state’s Open Meetings Law. The law simply requires that proper notice of legislative meetings is posted in advance so that interested members of the public might attend.
According to an annual report by the Secretary of State’s office, the General Assembly properly posted notice of committee hearings just 72 percent of the time in 2004 – down from 84 percent last year, according to the 2004 Access Report. Senate committees followed the letter of the law 82 percent of the time, down 4 percentage points from last year. House committees followed the letter of the law 65 percent of the time, down from 82 percent last year, according to the report.
It should be noted that the Secretary of State’s report is broken down into “letter of the law” and “spirit of the law” categories. Legislative committees overwhelmingly complied with the “spirit of the law” with regard to meeting notices.
But the public expects and deserves better than that. Or is it too much to ask that the body responsible for enacting our laws follows – to the letter – those very laws?
