In the spirit of risk management, the Washington Community Action Network made quite a scene giving out "lobbyist pandemic kits" during last week's meeting of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, while President Barack Obama made news by unwisely skipping his planned speech on implementation of his health care reform legislation, even though he was already in town to raise funds for the Democrats.
The protesters were a hoot, disrupting the NAIC's State Government Liaison Committee meeting by yelling about an "infestation of lobbyists" in the room, giving out their pandemic kits (which included masks to protect attendees from "inhalation of lobbyist lies" and a clothespin to "combat lobbyist stench") and quickly exiting before security could arrive.
Meanwhile, about 60 of their colleagues were camped outside of the Washington Convention Center, handing out the kits to meeting attendees as they left the building, according to our reporter on the scene, Mark Ruquet.
Mark spoke with the leader of the protest–Joshua Welter–who said his main focus was to make sure regulators did not cave in to demands by health insurers when it came to defining the ground rules for calculating the medical loss ratio mandated under the federal health care reform law, which limits carrier administrative costs to no more than 20 pecent for individual plans and 15 percent for group coverage.
"We have to support the insurance commissioners against more than a thousand lobbyists," according to Mr. Welter, who said that while the protestors were having some fun at the industry's expense, their objective was quite serious–making sure the bulk of health premiums go to pay for medical care, not to bloated carrier expenses.
I don't know how much influence the protesters ultimately had, but the regulators did approve a set of MLR guidelines that were more narrow than the industry would have liked. Indeed, industry officials warned that regulators risked seeing spending cut for such vital loss control functions as case management, wellness, disease management, and fraud and abuse prevention programs.
The form was sent on to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for its review and approval.
President Obama was supposed to be on hand to help rally the troops. I don't use the word "troops" lightly, as his health care reform law literally drafts state insurance departments as Washington's regulatory partners–willing or otherwise–in implementing many of the reforms. While federal funds will supposedly be forthcoming, state insurance commissioners likely will have their hands full, especially with so many local governments slashing budgets in our still struggling economy.
While the NAIC is no doubt pleased by the turn of events because it keeps their members in the spotlight–after all, Congress could have taken over health insurance regulation entirely and elbowed out state officials–this is still a lot of responsibility to shoulder. In fact, a story in the Aug. 14 New York Times reported that insurance commissioners "in about half the states say they do not have clear authority to enforce consumer protection standards" included in the federal law.
It would have been nice to have President Obama on hand to draw national attention to the key role state insurance commissioners are playing in implementing health care reform, and the major challenges they face. But while President Obama was in fact in Seattle at the time of the NAIC meeting, he bowed out from his speech to the group due to scheduling conflicts.
Had the president been called away to deal with deteriorating conditions in Afghanistan, Iraq or our own economy, it would have been understandable. But instead he hopped from fund-raiser to fund-raiser, generating money for the hotly contested mid-term elections. That was a lousy choice.
Sure, President Obama will no doubt meet with NAIC officials at the White House at some point down the road, and he has former insurance commissioners in key roles in his administration–including HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, a former governor and insurance commissioner in Kansas.
But at this critical juncture, with the NAIC being lobbied by both sides about medical loss ratios and challenged to handle a ton of new consumer protection mandates, it would have been nice if the president could have spared a few minutes in his fund-raising drive to acknowledge their efforts and even respond to the concerns expressed in the Times story by promising that federal help is on the way.
But is was not to be. A missed opportunity indeed!
What do you folks think?
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