Submitted to the Missouri Senate Interim Committee on Health Insurance Exchanges
In support of planning, funding and implementing a health insurance exchange.
Mary Clemons, President, Women's Voices Raised for Social Justice
I am the president of an organization of 550 women. Some of us are single; some are widows; some are married; many of us are on Medicare; most have children; and a lot of us have grandchildren. But what we all have in common is disgust -- disgust with the legislature in Missouri that seems hell bent on obstructing the law of the land. It is inexcusable that a process is not already underway to develop health insurance exchanges.
Some of our members have insurance deductibles that are so high they put off going to the doctor. One didn't go to the doctor until her blood pressure reached 170 because she would have to pay the cost of the doctor visit. One of our members had a small business (one of those job creators you are so fond of). She could only afford a high deductible policy, put off going to the doctor and then found she had stage 4 breast cancer. And then her high deductible carrier even refused to pay for treatment her doctors ordered. She died before she reached the age of 40. Some of us have insurance premiums that are so high they question whether to keep the policies. Some have children who haven't had raises in 4 years or who have lost jobs and to pay bills cancel their health insurance. Some have grandchildren who have health conditions that will prevent them from getting insurance when they will need to purchase it on their own.
These problems could be resolved with a true health insurance marketplace that would allow individuals and small businesses to compare and choose policies that fit their needs. But while Missourians suffer you have token hearings and don't really listen to those of us who come before you. When we do speak, you don't really hear us. You may give a condescending pat on the back - as you did to one of us who testified at a hearing last year - but we don't want pats on the back when we tell our tales of insurance woe; we want action. We're tired of your refusal to provide us the services called for in the Affordable Care Act.
Do you not understand that our economy would be improved if our member who is currently paying $18,000 a year for health insurance for her family of four could spend some of that money making purchases at our businesses? Do you like going from one store to the next to the next trying to find the best price for a major family purchase only to discover you can't really compare the prices because each store has different models? I don't understand why you wouldn't jump at the chance to create a competitive market place where individuals and small businesses could make one of the most important purchases affecting the lives of our Missouri families - where they could find insurance they can afford and be confident that the policy includes the quality coverage they need.
It seems to many of the members of my organization that those of you opposing the Affordable Care Act are doing so purely for political reasons. While you remain loyal to your heartless ideology you brush aside the fact that many of us are already benefitting from the provisions in place and that many more of us would benefit from the creation of an insurance exchange.
My name is Mary Clemons. I am the president of Women's Voices Raised for Social Justice. We have been raising our voices. But we have yet to receive justice.
Bernadette Gronborg, Festus, Missouri
Honorable Senators, my name is Bernadette Gronborg and I am a resident of Festus, Missouri.
I proudly serve on the Board of Missouri Health Care for All, a grassroots, non-partisan movement of faith and community leaders committed to securing quality, affordable health care for all Missourians. We have more than 7,000 grassroots members and over 130 endorsing organizations in the State who have endorsed our Principles for a just health care system. Missouri Health Care for All strongly supports the establishment of a competitive health insurance marketplace, an insurance exchange, in Missouri.
In addition, I am an INDIVIDUAL who must purchase health insurance for myself and I feel that my experience points out the need for an insurance exchange in Missouri. As an individual consumer of health insurance, I have experienced multiple rejections by insurance companies. Faced with the very few choices for health insurance in Missouri, I have found myself stranded with a high deductible ($15,000) exclusionary, nearly worthless policy for which I pay steadily increasing premiums of over $300 a month.
Like most individuals who have such pseudo coverage, I rarely choose to see my physician because virtually everything is an out-of-pocket expense. In just the last two weeks, I experienced dangerous blood pressure spikes and found myself in the good doctor's office for an appointment that should have happened much sooner. I've tried to do the right thing by insuring myself, but what good is this "insurance" doing me? I would give anything for an ability to SHOP for real choices in a market based insurance exchange similar to the one currently enjoyed by the citizens in the state of Massachusetts, The Massachusetts Connector.
The only thing stopping Missouri from establishing such an exchange is the political obstructionism of a handful of Missouri Senators who are using the Affordable Care Act (ObamacareS) as a tool to beat down the real needs of citizens and small businesses in the State. In my opinion, even if the proposed insurance exchange had nothing to do with the implementation of the ACA, it will STILL BE a vehicle for competition, affordability, transparency, guaranteed coverage and accountability for citizens and small businesses who need to purchase insurance in our State. If these same Senators are allowed to stand in the way of real choices and affordability for the citizens and businesses in our state, they will NOT ever attempt to come up with another solution for us. They may suggest "buying across state lines" as a solution, but that offers zero protection for the citizens of this State from "fly by night" operations of questionable origin.
In an attempt to block insurance exchanges, some have made a false argument that "71 percent of Missouri voters" passed Missouri Proposition C in 2010, and therefore Missourians don't want any part of the Affordable Care Act...even exchanges that would benefit them. Election results posted on the Missouri Secretary of State's site the day after that election showed that only 22.9 percent (938,782 out of 4,104,834) of registered voters actually voted in the 2010 election in our state. Only 16 percent (666,535 out of 4,104,834) of registered voters passed Prop C. Again: ONLY 16 PERCENT passed Prop C. The total "yes votes were about 71 percent OF THOSE WHO ACTUALLY VOTED. 16% of registered voters in the state is not a mandate for anything.
I am respectfully pleading, in the name of all Missourians who must purchase health insurance coverage, that we be given the opportunity to actually shop for our coverage in an insurance exchange similar to the Connector in Massachusetts. Please don't allow bad politics to drive out a good policy for Missouri.
And may I suggest a name for our exchange? -- Show Me Missouri Health Insurance
Barbara Richter - Kirkwood, Missouri
My name is Barbara Richter and my husband and I were small business owners of a manufacturing company that manufactured indoor day care equipment. We had our offices in Kirkwood, Missouri and our manufacturing plant in Union, Missouri. We sold the business in 2006 and it is still at the same locations and continuing on. One of my biggest headaches as a business owner was dealing with health insurance for our employees. When we were first in business, we were too small to qualify without doing health statements on each of our employees. My husband has heart disease and our Plant Manager has diabetes and heart disease so we could only qualify for extremely expensive insurance which we could not afford. Once we had 25 employees, we could get insurance without the health statements so we were able to obtain group coverage at that time. Every year we dealt with increasing costs to our premiums and constant changes to our insurance plan to try to keep cost under control. One year we purchased insurance that did not include durable medical equipment. I asked what that was and the broker said crutches, canes, etcs. I thought that would be okay until my employees started complaining that their test strips for diabetes and their syringes were not covered under our plan. I was horrified to discover this because my employees said some of them were just not going to manage their diabetes because it was too expensive for them. I decided to reimburse them the full cost of these items because I knew the serious damage that would occur to their health if they let their diabetes get out of control. This is just one example of the multiple, complex issues we deal with in securing adequate health coverage for our employees. I have a masters degree and I cannot understand or compare the differences between plans because they are all so different, complicated, and use different language. We need health insurance exchanges to make the variables more understandable so ordinary people can make good decisions about their coverage.
Another issue we faced every year was the unpredictable and unexplainable premium increases we were given. One year we received a 49% rate increase that didn't make sense to us and caused us to switch plans again and again to keep the costs down. This was very disruptive to our employees to be switching plans and coverage constantly. We didn't want to make these switches, but we had no other choice. We need rate review so the rate increases are studied by an outside body to shine a light on these outlandish rate increases. No other industry that we deal with in our business handles rate increases this way and we have very few alternatives to compete with the available health insurance plans in our area.
We were a successful manufacturing business and we were purchasing health insurance for about 100 employees however, there were many years that our pool was smaller as we grew over time. It is still going strong today, employing fewer people due to the economy but still strong. Health insurance coverage for our employees was a constant, nagging issue that took us away from our real business, which was manufacturing play equipment for children. Missouri needs health insurance exchanges and rate review to make our insurance system run more efficiently and effectively.
Sue Bohm - Chesterfield, Missouri
My name is Sue Bohm and I live in Chesterfield, Missouri. My husband is currently self-employed, and we have 2 sons, ages 18 and 16. We used to own a small business and we had the minimum number of employees to enroll in a group plan. When we closed the business (after a very good run) we looked for individual coverage, and our entire family was turned down for insurance from every reputable company due to pre-existing conditions. We had to sign up for Missouri's HPPA insurance which was incredibly expensive, and we were in a pool with the sickest people in the state. The four of us had several pre-existing conditions but have been generally healthy for the most part. We finally found a company that would accept us each as an individual plan but the premiums have risen every year to the point that we spend over $18,000 a year for a husband and wife over 50 and two boys,18 and 16. I look forward to the day where we can shop around and not pay this much. Think of the disposable income we would have if it weren't spent on health care. This is like buying a new car every year. A state exchange would generate revenue from people like us who might have more money to spend instead of giving it to GHP. We are especially interested in the exchange providing coverage for people with pre-existing conditions and keeping premium costs reasonable.
Thank you for holding this hearing and for providing me an opportunity to tell you of my support for the State of Missouri establishing a strong Health Insurance Exchange.
