Joint Insurance and Commerce Committee – August 27, 2009
Posted on August 27th, 2009
Date & Time: Thursday, August 27, 2009 at 1:30 PM
Location: Room 149, State Capitol
Agenda: http://www.arkleg.state.ar.us/assembly/2009/Lists/Meetings/Attachments/12051/I7724.pdf
Attachments: http://www.arkleg.state.ar.us/assembly/2009/R/Pages/MeetingAttachments.aspx?ItemId=12051&CalType=ME&List=Meetings&btnok=nook
This committee reviews matters pertaining to banks and banking, savings and loan association, stock, bonds, and other securities, securities dealers, insurance, public utilities, partnerships and corporations, home mortgage financing and housing, similar legislation and resolutions germane to the subject matter of the committee. (House Rules 62.9)
1:38 pm – Meeting called to order by Rep. Eddie Hawkins and Senator Barbara Horn.
1:39 pm – Meetings of minutes approved.
1:41 pm – Interim Study Proposal ISP 2009-130 is up for adoption. It is titled An Act to Regulate the Sale of Home Extended Warranty Coverage and Home Service Contracts to Provide Greater Consumer Protection; and for Other Purposes.
1:45 pm – Questions from Sen. Altes, Rep. Martin (me) and Rep. Wells concerning placing additional regulations on the sale of homes in an already depressed housing market.
1:48 pm – There seems to be alot of opposition. I cannot remember an interim study being roll called but it appears this one will. I reluctantly voted no. It is something that may need to be considered during better times, but right now it appears to be a bad thing for our state economy.
1:51 pm – Wow. The motion failed. There is alot of discussion about the rule of the joint committee.
1:55 pm – ISP 2009-171 for An Act to Allow for the Creation of a Low-Profit Limited Liability Company; and for Other Purposes. This ISP is also under debate. This bill was however pulled before debate during the session rather than voted down. So the legislators vote to allow the study of this topic since the sponsor elected not complete evaluation during the session.
1:58 pm – Ms. Melissa Simpson, Senior Health Insurance Information Program Manager for the Arkansas Insurance Department is discussing Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) grant and providing application assitance for low income Medicare beneficiaries seeking help with prescription drug benefits.
2:03 pm – Senator Malone is asking who are the people eligible. It is for people who have medicare part D with emphasis on low income. Often people qualify in all respect except for assets. For example, Farm Property.
2:05 pm – Senator Malone is asking how we, as legislators, are going to communicate to our constituents the information to those eligible.
2:06 pm – Ms. Simpson is asking the committee to seek constituents, ie. church groups, ect. to go to training and help get this information out.
2:07 pm – Sen. Malone is communicating that this seems to be a duplication of information services being provided by the Social Security or DHS.
2:08 pm – Ms. Simpson is explaining that some people fall through the cracks and others don’t want go to the Medicaid office.
2:10 pm – Crawford County has 10,606 total medicare beneficiaries eligible for Part D, there is an estimated 1.038 people in the target audience.
2:12 pm – Washington County has 23,258 total medicate beneficiaries eligible for Part D, there is an estimated 1,448 people in the target audience.
2:15 pm – I am looking at the (Senior Health Insurance Information Program (SHIIP) chart for Part B premiums. This is insane. Did you know that a couple with a joint yearly income above $486,001 per year are still receive healthcare benefits subsidized by taxpayers? I had to ask for confirmation from Ms. Simpson. She confirmed.
2:20 pm – I am sorry, but I can’t help but shake with rage. This is absolute and total insanity. Why in the hell should tax payers be forced to subsidize people that wealthy? To make matters worse, by looking at the chart it doesn’t matter if you jointly make $426,001 or $4,260,100, you still only have to pay a $308.30 premium for Medicare Part B.
2:26 pm – Now discussing details of the various Medicare parts, but I can’t even concentrate. Essentally Sen. Malone got clarification that Medicare part A does not pay anything toward nursing home costs for the first 20 days, and only $135 per day for days 26 to 100. Perhaps we should unsubsidize a few millionaires and take that money to take better care of the most needy.
2:32 pm – Mr. Bill Lacy, Property and Casualty Manager at the Arkansas Insurance Department is presenting reports concerning the Medical Malpractice Insurance Market in Arkansas, also the uses and impact of Credit in Personal Lines Insurance Premiums, and lastly the Annual Fire Loss Report.
2:37 pm – Apparently the use of credit records has resulted in the decrease in premiums for most people for their auto insurance.
2:43 pm – It was privately pointed out to me that the Medicare Program is like Social Security, that it is “supposed” to be a “Trust Fund” that people have paid into over their life.
2:47 pm – Currently we are discussing what is driving changes in fire loss rates. Rep. Maxwell has suggested that a long term evaluation of this data could drive how fire premiums are calculated.
2:52 pm – Meeting adjourned.
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