Community Health and Consumer Advocates Oppose Exchange Bill

Lund Report:

Still, Sens. Chip Shields (D-Portland) and Frank Morse (R-Albany) expressed concern that the bill in its current form could allow the governor to appoint board members who have significant conflicts of interest between their professional and board roles.

“This is not my preferred [bill] language,” said Morse.

Both the letter writers and legislators had concerns about the bill’s failure to protect against what’s known as adverse selection, where sicker people wind up dominating the insurance pool, healthier people remain outside it, and the increased cost of covering the less healthy population drives up premiums and drives the remaining healthy people out of the pool to seek less expensive coverage.

This is part of why Shields has been a strong proponent of robust rate regulation in the insurance market. At Monday’s hearing, he made the case again for strong regulation inside and outside the exchange by the state’s Department of Consumer and Business Services (DCBS), “So people in the individual market have someone to advocate for them.”

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